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Community activists plead to be heard through “closed doors” outside nation’s top energy conference

HOUSTON — Climate activists expressed concern that discussions behind closed doors at the nation’s largest energy conference, CERAWeek by S&P Global, will further contribute to environmental health risks. As energy executives and political leaders across the nation convened for the conference in Houston, Texas this week to discuss the future of energy, representatives from the Gulf Coast, Rio Grande Valley, Ohio River Valley, and Cancer Alley highlighted the fossil fuel industry's impact in their communities. “It is our communities that are being harmed and hurt,” Yvette Arellano of the Houston environmental organization Fenceline Watch said. “It is our children that are having to play in playgrounds across the street from chemical plants and oil refineries.”Despite attempting to purchase conference tickets at costs of up to $10,500, activists have been barred from the conference in recent years, Arellano said.“The conference has shut out civil society from entering and understanding the projects that are coming to harm our communities,” Arellano said at a press conference at a park about 10 minutes from the convention center on Monday. “We demand transparency.” S&P Global has not responded to Environmental Health News’ request for comment. Health concerns and “energy additions”Some sessions at CERAWeek were devoted to climate discussions, like Monday’s session about climate change priorities featuring industry voices from S&P Global and the Oil and Gas Climate Initiative (OGCI), alongside environmental advocacy groups like the Environmental Defense Fund and the Energy Futures Initiative Foundation.The panel tackled questions about whether climate change will remain a priority for the industry and how the energy transition will continue under the Trump administration. Bob Dudley, chairman of the OGCI, repeatedly rephrased his own statements about the energy transition to “energy additions,” emphasizing the continued use of fossil fuels. “Oil and gas operators in the U.S. alone waste $3.5 billion worth of methane a year through leaks, flaring, and other releases, enough to supply the energy needs of 19 million American homes,” Fred Krupp, president of the Environmental Defense Fund, said in the same conference session. Less than a mile away from the CERAWeek convention, the Buffalo Bayou flows through downtown and into the Houston Ship Channel, which facilitates global access to the “energy capital of the world” for many of the companies in attendance at the conference. According to the Greater Houston Partnership, 44 of 128 publicly traded oil and gas companies and nearly one-third of the nation’s oil and gas jobs are located in Houston. With more than 600 petrochemical facilities, this single area produces about 42% of the nation's petrochemicals. Last year an Amnesty International report dubbed the area a “sacrifice zone,” where fenceline communities, predominantly populated by people of color, are exposed to disproportionately high levels of pollution. In these areas, chemical disasters, climate-warming emissions, and higher cancer risks are common. Several high-profile companies, including ExxonMobil, receive substantial tax breaks despite having poor environmental track records.“We have people who are over there who are making these decisions for our community,” said Breon Robinson, organizer for Southwest Louisiana and Southeast Texas at the environmental group Healthy Gulf, motioning toward the conference center. “They see us as scraps, they see us as a sacrifice zone … but we tell them hell no.”Protesters arrestedAfter the press conference, hundreds of protestors made their way toward a second public park just steps away from the CERAWeek convention center. Some held banners with messages like “No faith in fossil fuels” and “We need clean air, not another billionaire.” Others held cardboard cutouts or piñatas made in the likeness of oil and gas executives. Alexis Ramírez, Corpus Christi resident and elementary music teacher, played music during the march.Protesters arrestedAfter the press conference, hundreds of protestors made their way toward a second public park just steps away from the CERAWeek convention center. Some held banners with messages like “No faith in fossil fuels” and “We need clean air, not another billionaire.” Others held cardboard cutouts or piñatas made in the likeness of oil and gas executives. Alexis Ramírez, Corpus Christi resident and elementary music teacher, played music during the march.“I want to spread the joy of music and the power of music through this protest for my students,” Ramírez said. “They’re going to be our doctors, our teachers, whatever they are, they are going to take care of me and you when we are old. And that’s why I’m here, to take care of them.”The protest was escorted by dozens of police officers in vehicles and on horseback. As the protesters neared the convention center the group split in two as eight individuals interlocked arms briefly in front of traffic. After asking them to move and pressing forward with their horses, police officers arrested eight protesters, including Arellano of Fenceline Watch.While many groups said their concerns existed before the presidential administration change, some expressed worry that Trump’s policy shift toward “energy dominance” will further exacerbate environmental risks with promises of fast-tracked permitting processes and the repeal of pollution and climate rules.Despite these shifts, local activists are still calling for a just energy transition.“We get there together, or we never get there at all,” the protestors sang. “No one is getting left behind this time.”

HOUSTON — Climate activists expressed concern that discussions behind closed doors at the nation’s largest energy conference, CERAWeek by S&P Global, will further contribute to environmental health risks. As energy executives and political leaders across the nation convened for the conference in Houston, Texas this week to discuss the future of energy, representatives from the Gulf Coast, Rio Grande Valley, Ohio River Valley, and Cancer Alley highlighted the fossil fuel industry's impact in their communities. “It is our communities that are being harmed and hurt,” Yvette Arellano of the Houston environmental organization Fenceline Watch said. “It is our children that are having to play in playgrounds across the street from chemical plants and oil refineries.”Despite attempting to purchase conference tickets at costs of up to $10,500, activists have been barred from the conference in recent years, Arellano said.“The conference has shut out civil society from entering and understanding the projects that are coming to harm our communities,” Arellano said at a press conference at a park about 10 minutes from the convention center on Monday. “We demand transparency.” S&P Global has not responded to Environmental Health News’ request for comment. Health concerns and “energy additions”Some sessions at CERAWeek were devoted to climate discussions, like Monday’s session about climate change priorities featuring industry voices from S&P Global and the Oil and Gas Climate Initiative (OGCI), alongside environmental advocacy groups like the Environmental Defense Fund and the Energy Futures Initiative Foundation.The panel tackled questions about whether climate change will remain a priority for the industry and how the energy transition will continue under the Trump administration. Bob Dudley, chairman of the OGCI, repeatedly rephrased his own statements about the energy transition to “energy additions,” emphasizing the continued use of fossil fuels. “Oil and gas operators in the U.S. alone waste $3.5 billion worth of methane a year through leaks, flaring, and other releases, enough to supply the energy needs of 19 million American homes,” Fred Krupp, president of the Environmental Defense Fund, said in the same conference session. Less than a mile away from the CERAWeek convention, the Buffalo Bayou flows through downtown and into the Houston Ship Channel, which facilitates global access to the “energy capital of the world” for many of the companies in attendance at the conference. According to the Greater Houston Partnership, 44 of 128 publicly traded oil and gas companies and nearly one-third of the nation’s oil and gas jobs are located in Houston. With more than 600 petrochemical facilities, this single area produces about 42% of the nation's petrochemicals. Last year an Amnesty International report dubbed the area a “sacrifice zone,” where fenceline communities, predominantly populated by people of color, are exposed to disproportionately high levels of pollution. In these areas, chemical disasters, climate-warming emissions, and higher cancer risks are common. Several high-profile companies, including ExxonMobil, receive substantial tax breaks despite having poor environmental track records.“We have people who are over there who are making these decisions for our community,” said Breon Robinson, organizer for Southwest Louisiana and Southeast Texas at the environmental group Healthy Gulf, motioning toward the conference center. “They see us as scraps, they see us as a sacrifice zone … but we tell them hell no.”Protesters arrestedAfter the press conference, hundreds of protestors made their way toward a second public park just steps away from the CERAWeek convention center. Some held banners with messages like “No faith in fossil fuels” and “We need clean air, not another billionaire.” Others held cardboard cutouts or piñatas made in the likeness of oil and gas executives. Alexis Ramírez, Corpus Christi resident and elementary music teacher, played music during the march.Protesters arrestedAfter the press conference, hundreds of protestors made their way toward a second public park just steps away from the CERAWeek convention center. Some held banners with messages like “No faith in fossil fuels” and “We need clean air, not another billionaire.” Others held cardboard cutouts or piñatas made in the likeness of oil and gas executives. Alexis Ramírez, Corpus Christi resident and elementary music teacher, played music during the march.“I want to spread the joy of music and the power of music through this protest for my students,” Ramírez said. “They’re going to be our doctors, our teachers, whatever they are, they are going to take care of me and you when we are old. And that’s why I’m here, to take care of them.”The protest was escorted by dozens of police officers in vehicles and on horseback. As the protesters neared the convention center the group split in two as eight individuals interlocked arms briefly in front of traffic. After asking them to move and pressing forward with their horses, police officers arrested eight protesters, including Arellano of Fenceline Watch.While many groups said their concerns existed before the presidential administration change, some expressed worry that Trump’s policy shift toward “energy dominance” will further exacerbate environmental risks with promises of fast-tracked permitting processes and the repeal of pollution and climate rules.Despite these shifts, local activists are still calling for a just energy transition.“We get there together, or we never get there at all,” the protestors sang. “No one is getting left behind this time.”

Activism
Energy
Climate

What’s happening to EPA-funded community projects under Trump?

PITTSBURGH — The Biden administration pledged more than $53 million to community groups across the country for air monitoring projects in 2022, many of which were just getting underway when Trump took office. Trump issued executive orders that temporarily froze federal funding for environment-related projects (along with other key services and programs across the country), then fired and re-hired staff at the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA), which has caused confusion and delays in the implementation of key environmental health programs nationwide. The uncertainty has only been intensified by the news that the agency is repealing dozens of environmental regulations and plans to close all of its environmental justice offices. Programs facing a funding freeze included the 132 air monitoring projects in 37 states slated to receive $53.4 million in federal funding, which represent the agency’s largest investment in community air monitoring to date. Western Pennsylvania is one of a handful of geographic regions that received funding for multiple community air monitoring projects under the program. The region is home to numerous pollution sources that impact environmental health, including fracking, steel mills, petrochemical plants, and other industrial manufacturing. Exposure to this pollution increases the risk of cancer, heart and respiratory disease, premature death, and even mental illness. “I think there’s a misconception about abuse and waste of these federal funds that is so important to counter,” Ana Tsuhlares Hoffman, director of the air quality program at Carnegie Mellon University’s CREATE Lab, told EHN. The CREATE Lab is managing and analyzing the data collected from all of the federally-funded community air monitoring projects in western Pennsylvania. Organizations receiving federal funding, Hoffman said, need to be “open and up front about what we stand to lose if we lose this funding.” EHN spoke with Hoffman about how the Trump administration’s actions have impacted air monitoring projects in the region, and environmental health research and advocacy more broadly. Editor’s note: This conversation has been edited for length and clarity. EHN: What impacts on local environmental health research and advocacy have you seen from the federal funding freeze? Hoffman: We had four weeks of waking up not knowing if we’d be able to pay salaries for key staff or keep our promises to community members while our funds weren’t accessible and EPA staff were not allowed to communicate with us at all. It was a long, difficult process to administer the grants for the EPA’s community air monitoring projects. I’m so grateful to the nonprofits that took on this role — they’re all tiny compared to the organizations that usually receive federal funding, but they stepped up to figure out how to administer these grants on behalf of smaller grassroots organizations and individuals who’d been doing this work on their own for decades. Local nonprofits including FracTracker Alliance, Protect PT, GASP, and the Breathe Project worked together to decide who would represent different geographies and specific industrial polluters that had concerned residents for a long time. There was a lot of pressure to comply with the EPA requirements, which included a long list of quality assurance concerns we’d never encountered before. Securing those grants was hard-won and painful to achieve, but at the end of the process we felt like we’d leveled up our air monitoring capabilities in a meaningful way. We spent years getting to this place, and were just starting to collect air monitoring samples and process data when we learned about the funding freeze. It felt like years’ worth of activists’ and researchers’ time and effort was hanging in the balance. The big concern was whether we’d be able to pay people who were just hired to conduct new, federally-funded air monitoring projects, and whether we’d be able to keep the commitments that we’ve made to residents. That was a horrible moment where we had to go to residents to say, “We know we’ve been telling you for years that we’re working to get you answers about what you’re breathing next to this compression station or factory, but we’re not sure if we can follow through on that commitment.” EHN: What’s the status of those air monitoring projects now? Hoffman: As of right now, our grants have been un-suspended and reinstated, and we are able to access our funds, so we’re resuming the work. Our legal advisors have reminded us that we need to stay in compliance with our grant funds by continuing the work, even if it seems like there’s a chance the rug will be pulled out from under us. There’s a national network of federal funding recipients that’s facilitated by the Environmental Protection Network, which has been providing pro bono legal assistance to groups impacted by the federal funding freeze. They helped us organize instead of panicking, and groups across the country were able to successfully win back access to our funding by working in a coordinated way. Speaking as a university representative, there are labs like the CREATE Lab all across the country that serve local environmental research needs and are funded by federal dollars that are in much worse straits than we are. In cases like that, universities will have impossible decisions to make about whether to continue to support those initiatives as they lose funding for the administrative staff that keep universities running. EHN: How do you think Trump's rollbacks of environmental and health regulations could impact enforcement of those regulations at the federal, state, and local level? We’ve always had to use a combined effort of people power and legal support to effectively watchdog industrial polluters. But now we have less hope that our already significantly-underfunded agencies, like the Pennsylvania Department of Environmental Protection, will be able to respond to concerns and conduct inspections in the way that they need to. There already aren’t enough investigators to come out when watchdogs produce evidence of pollution events that are worthy of investigation, and I do think enforcement is now being deprioritized. We’ll have to be more thoughtful and diligent in our data collection and evidence collection efforts. We’ll have to be systematic as best we can to try and help fill those gaps. EHN: How are environmental health advocates changing course to adapt to the new political landscape? I think we will have to adjust our hopes for engagement with the EPA. We’ll have to collectively change gears to hold polluters accountable as best we can while federal agencies lose access to the resources they need to properly enforce environmental regulations. We’ll have to accept that “energy dominance for America” means that any push to shift to a more sustainable and environmentally-friendly economy is going to be hampered, and that our hopes for building a better future will likely need to be put on pause while we focus on defending our previous progress. We’ll really need to work together. We all only have so many brain cells and so many hours in the day, but when we work collectively we’re much more powerful.

PITTSBURGH — The Biden administration pledged more than $53 million to community groups across the country for air monitoring projects in 2022, many of which were just getting underway when Trump took office. Trump issued executive orders that temporarily froze federal funding for environment-related projects (along with other key services and programs across the country), then fired and re-hired staff at the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA), which has caused confusion and delays in the implementation of key environmental health programs nationwide. The uncertainty has only been intensified by the news that the agency is repealing dozens of environmental regulations and plans to close all of its environmental justice offices. Programs facing a funding freeze included the 132 air monitoring projects in 37 states slated to receive $53.4 million in federal funding, which represent the agency’s largest investment in community air monitoring to date. Western Pennsylvania is one of a handful of geographic regions that received funding for multiple community air monitoring projects under the program. The region is home to numerous pollution sources that impact environmental health, including fracking, steel mills, petrochemical plants, and other industrial manufacturing. Exposure to this pollution increases the risk of cancer, heart and respiratory disease, premature death, and even mental illness. “I think there’s a misconception about abuse and waste of these federal funds that is so important to counter,” Ana Tsuhlares Hoffman, director of the air quality program at Carnegie Mellon University’s CREATE Lab, told EHN. The CREATE Lab is managing and analyzing the data collected from all of the federally-funded community air monitoring projects in western Pennsylvania. Organizations receiving federal funding, Hoffman said, need to be “open and up front about what we stand to lose if we lose this funding.” EHN spoke with Hoffman about how the Trump administration’s actions have impacted air monitoring projects in the region, and environmental health research and advocacy more broadly. Editor’s note: This conversation has been edited for length and clarity. EHN: What impacts on local environmental health research and advocacy have you seen from the federal funding freeze? Hoffman: We had four weeks of waking up not knowing if we’d be able to pay salaries for key staff or keep our promises to community members while our funds weren’t accessible and EPA staff were not allowed to communicate with us at all. It was a long, difficult process to administer the grants for the EPA’s community air monitoring projects. I’m so grateful to the nonprofits that took on this role — they’re all tiny compared to the organizations that usually receive federal funding, but they stepped up to figure out how to administer these grants on behalf of smaller grassroots organizations and individuals who’d been doing this work on their own for decades. Local nonprofits including FracTracker Alliance, Protect PT, GASP, and the Breathe Project worked together to decide who would represent different geographies and specific industrial polluters that had concerned residents for a long time. There was a lot of pressure to comply with the EPA requirements, which included a long list of quality assurance concerns we’d never encountered before. Securing those grants was hard-won and painful to achieve, but at the end of the process we felt like we’d leveled up our air monitoring capabilities in a meaningful way. We spent years getting to this place, and were just starting to collect air monitoring samples and process data when we learned about the funding freeze. It felt like years’ worth of activists’ and researchers’ time and effort was hanging in the balance. The big concern was whether we’d be able to pay people who were just hired to conduct new, federally-funded air monitoring projects, and whether we’d be able to keep the commitments that we’ve made to residents. That was a horrible moment where we had to go to residents to say, “We know we’ve been telling you for years that we’re working to get you answers about what you’re breathing next to this compression station or factory, but we’re not sure if we can follow through on that commitment.” EHN: What’s the status of those air monitoring projects now? Hoffman: As of right now, our grants have been un-suspended and reinstated, and we are able to access our funds, so we’re resuming the work. Our legal advisors have reminded us that we need to stay in compliance with our grant funds by continuing the work, even if it seems like there’s a chance the rug will be pulled out from under us. There’s a national network of federal funding recipients that’s facilitated by the Environmental Protection Network, which has been providing pro bono legal assistance to groups impacted by the federal funding freeze. They helped us organize instead of panicking, and groups across the country were able to successfully win back access to our funding by working in a coordinated way. Speaking as a university representative, there are labs like the CREATE Lab all across the country that serve local environmental research needs and are funded by federal dollars that are in much worse straits than we are. In cases like that, universities will have impossible decisions to make about whether to continue to support those initiatives as they lose funding for the administrative staff that keep universities running. EHN: How do you think Trump's rollbacks of environmental and health regulations could impact enforcement of those regulations at the federal, state, and local level? We’ve always had to use a combined effort of people power and legal support to effectively watchdog industrial polluters. But now we have less hope that our already significantly-underfunded agencies, like the Pennsylvania Department of Environmental Protection, will be able to respond to concerns and conduct inspections in the way that they need to. There already aren’t enough investigators to come out when watchdogs produce evidence of pollution events that are worthy of investigation, and I do think enforcement is now being deprioritized. We’ll have to be more thoughtful and diligent in our data collection and evidence collection efforts. We’ll have to be systematic as best we can to try and help fill those gaps. EHN: How are environmental health advocates changing course to adapt to the new political landscape? I think we will have to adjust our hopes for engagement with the EPA. We’ll have to collectively change gears to hold polluters accountable as best we can while federal agencies lose access to the resources they need to properly enforce environmental regulations. We’ll have to accept that “energy dominance for America” means that any push to shift to a more sustainable and environmentally-friendly economy is going to be hampered, and that our hopes for building a better future will likely need to be put on pause while we focus on defending our previous progress. We’ll really need to work together. We all only have so many brain cells and so many hours in the day, but when we work collectively we’re much more powerful.

Activism
Chemicals
Energy

Opinion: I live in Flint, Michigan. Shuttering environmental justice at EPA hurts communities like mine.

Eleven years ago Flint, Michigan, fatefully switched its drinking water supply to the Flint River. The consequences are well-documented: significant damage to pipes, a historic outbreak of Legionnaires’ disease, system-wide lead contamination. My then-three-year-old son was one of the children who drank that lead-tainted water. Because lead is only detectable in the blood for two months’ time, we, like many other Flint families, will never know exactly how much lead may have entered our child’s body, or what effects it might have had on his development. That uncertainty is just one of the many ways in which the Flint water crisis continues to reverberate throughout our community.Another notable, and much-remarked reverberation is the effect the crisis had on trust in governmental institutions. Flint parents will not soon forget the many months our children drank tainted water while officials insisted everything was fine. The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA), for its part, was shamefully slow to act in the face of evidence that the water posed an imminent threat. In some ways, the agency is still on the wrong side of the crisis, as it continues to fight a lawsuit brought by residents. But EPA has given itself a means of addressing its blind spots, course correcting, and hopefully, minimizing mistakes like the ones we saw in Flint.The EPA’s National Environmental Justice Advisory Council (NEJAC) was created in 1993 to provide recommendations to the EPA administrator for addressing pollution and other environmental burdens in our hardest-hit communities. NEJAC’s members are unpaid, performing their work for the council as a public service. And they hail from a wide range of backgrounds: community-based organizations, state and local government, academia, tribal government, and the business and industry sector. Credit: SHTTEFAN on Unsplash NEJAC’s open meetings offer the public inlets of influence over the federal government, giving communities the opportunity to lift up their concerns and ensure that they are taken seriously and followed up on. After the revelations about Flint’s water, NEJAC invited one of the city’s leading water activists to speak to the council and, inspired by her testimony and reports from other community advocates, authored a letter calling for prompt EPA action to address “enduring problems” in Flint. (The agency’s follow-up actions are detailed here.) Subsequently, Flint helped to inspire NEJAC’s national recommendations around water infrastructure.In 2020, the last year of the first Trump administration, I began my own service on NEJAC. That year, former EPA Administrator Andrew Wheeler conducted a review of all advisory committees to EPA and, in his words, “reaffirmed the importance” of NEJAC’s “critical role” in helping the agency “make measurable progress improving the health and welfare of overburdened communities.”The difference between then and now is striking. Current EPA Administrator Lee Zeldin has suggested that environmental justice work amounts to discrimination and has been purging EPA of all traces of its environmental justice commitments. Notably, NEJAC has been removed from EPA’s official list of advisory committees, and the fate of the council is unclear. As (presumptive) NEJAC vice-chair, I and other members of the NEJAC leadership team sent a letter to Administrator Zeldin on February 28 asking him to meet with us, as is customary for a new administrator. He has not responded.Meanwhile, like other marginalized communities, Flint waits to see whether our plight will be taken seriously by this administration. Flint remains under the EPA emergency order issued in January 2016, a reflection of our water system’s lingering issues. While significant strides have been made in getting lead out of our water, residents are awaiting the completion of lead pipe removal, and we still face many challenges in rebuilding the relationship between residents and our water utility. Under the last presidential administration, EPA employees in the environmental justice program offered resources to help facilitate the Flint Water System Advisory Council, which serves as an interface between Flint residents and the city’s water managers. Whether this support will continue, given that some of these agency allies have been placed on administrative leave and are facing termination, is very much an open question. On February 20 of this year, Administrator Zeldin made a point of visiting Flint. He toured the Flint Water Treatment Plant and pledged that EPA would remain “fully engaged” with the city’s recovery effort. What the administrator did not do, however, is take the time to hear directly from impacted community members about their needs, concerns, and recommendations.It is a contradiction to claim full engagement and to simultaneously neglect or cut off opportunities for members of our most marginalized communities to lift up their voices to EPA and other federal agencies. With the closing of EPA’s national and regional environmental justice offices, there has never been more need for the spotlight that NEJAC can shine on the environmental struggles of communities like Flint. For over 30 years, across Democratic and Republican administrations, NEJAC has provided EPA decision-makers with invaluable perspective at negligible cost to the American taxpayer. Administrator Zeldin should, like his predecessors, reaffirm its important role.

Eleven years ago Flint, Michigan, fatefully switched its drinking water supply to the Flint River. The consequences are well-documented: significant damage to pipes, a historic outbreak of Legionnaires’ disease, system-wide lead contamination. My then-three-year-old son was one of the children who drank that lead-tainted water. Because lead is only detectable in the blood for two months’ time, we, like many other Flint families, will never know exactly how much lead may have entered our child’s body, or what effects it might have had on his development. That uncertainty is just one of the many ways in which the Flint water crisis continues to reverberate throughout our community.Another notable, and much-remarked reverberation is the effect the crisis had on trust in governmental institutions. Flint parents will not soon forget the many months our children drank tainted water while officials insisted everything was fine. The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA), for its part, was shamefully slow to act in the face of evidence that the water posed an imminent threat. In some ways, the agency is still on the wrong side of the crisis, as it continues to fight a lawsuit brought by residents. But EPA has given itself a means of addressing its blind spots, course correcting, and hopefully, minimizing mistakes like the ones we saw in Flint.The EPA’s National Environmental Justice Advisory Council (NEJAC) was created in 1993 to provide recommendations to the EPA administrator for addressing pollution and other environmental burdens in our hardest-hit communities. NEJAC’s members are unpaid, performing their work for the council as a public service. And they hail from a wide range of backgrounds: community-based organizations, state and local government, academia, tribal government, and the business and industry sector. Credit: SHTTEFAN on Unsplash NEJAC’s open meetings offer the public inlets of influence over the federal government, giving communities the opportunity to lift up their concerns and ensure that they are taken seriously and followed up on. After the revelations about Flint’s water, NEJAC invited one of the city’s leading water activists to speak to the council and, inspired by her testimony and reports from other community advocates, authored a letter calling for prompt EPA action to address “enduring problems” in Flint. (The agency’s follow-up actions are detailed here.) Subsequently, Flint helped to inspire NEJAC’s national recommendations around water infrastructure.In 2020, the last year of the first Trump administration, I began my own service on NEJAC. That year, former EPA Administrator Andrew Wheeler conducted a review of all advisory committees to EPA and, in his words, “reaffirmed the importance” of NEJAC’s “critical role” in helping the agency “make measurable progress improving the health and welfare of overburdened communities.”The difference between then and now is striking. Current EPA Administrator Lee Zeldin has suggested that environmental justice work amounts to discrimination and has been purging EPA of all traces of its environmental justice commitments. Notably, NEJAC has been removed from EPA’s official list of advisory committees, and the fate of the council is unclear. As (presumptive) NEJAC vice-chair, I and other members of the NEJAC leadership team sent a letter to Administrator Zeldin on February 28 asking him to meet with us, as is customary for a new administrator. He has not responded.Meanwhile, like other marginalized communities, Flint waits to see whether our plight will be taken seriously by this administration. Flint remains under the EPA emergency order issued in January 2016, a reflection of our water system’s lingering issues. While significant strides have been made in getting lead out of our water, residents are awaiting the completion of lead pipe removal, and we still face many challenges in rebuilding the relationship between residents and our water utility. Under the last presidential administration, EPA employees in the environmental justice program offered resources to help facilitate the Flint Water System Advisory Council, which serves as an interface between Flint residents and the city’s water managers. Whether this support will continue, given that some of these agency allies have been placed on administrative leave and are facing termination, is very much an open question. On February 20 of this year, Administrator Zeldin made a point of visiting Flint. He toured the Flint Water Treatment Plant and pledged that EPA would remain “fully engaged” with the city’s recovery effort. What the administrator did not do, however, is take the time to hear directly from impacted community members about their needs, concerns, and recommendations.It is a contradiction to claim full engagement and to simultaneously neglect or cut off opportunities for members of our most marginalized communities to lift up their voices to EPA and other federal agencies. With the closing of EPA’s national and regional environmental justice offices, there has never been more need for the spotlight that NEJAC can shine on the environmental struggles of communities like Flint. For over 30 years, across Democratic and Republican administrations, NEJAC has provided EPA decision-makers with invaluable perspective at negligible cost to the American taxpayer. Administrator Zeldin should, like his predecessors, reaffirm its important role.

Activism
Business
Crisis

Rural families use innovative DNA tool to track pig farm pollution

Communities living near factory farms are using a new scientific tool to track pig feces in their homes — and fight back.Hana Mensendiek reports for U.S. Right To Know.In short:Residents in Duplin County, North Carolina, worked with Johns Hopkins scientists to create Pig-2-Bac, a tool that identifies pig manure DNA in household dust.The data helps communities prove that fecal waste from nearby factory farms is contaminating their air and homes, strengthening legal cases against polluters.Researchers say the tool could support lawsuits and Environmental Protection Agency enforcement, especially as new clean air rules targeting livestock emissions take shape.Key quote:“When we’re telling the powers that be how bad it is sometimes, that our eyes are watering, our nose is running, and we’re coughing, sometimes we hear, ‘oh, it can’t be that bad’”.— Devon Hall Sr., director of Rural Empowerment Association for Community HelpWhy this matters:Factory farm air pollution is a serious but underregulated health threat, linked to asthma, respiratory illness, and mental health conditions.For communities buried in the stink of Big Ag, this little dust test could be a breath of fresh air — and a shot at justice. As federal oversight stalls and right-to-farm laws shield industry, tools like Pig-2-Bac give communities a rare shot at holding powerful companies accountable. Read more from EHN:Peak Pig: Read our full series on the fight for the soul of rural America.

Communities living near factory farms are using a new scientific tool to track pig feces in their homes — and fight back.Hana Mensendiek reports for U.S. Right To Know.In short:Residents in Duplin County, North Carolina, worked with Johns Hopkins scientists to create Pig-2-Bac, a tool that identifies pig manure DNA in household dust.The data helps communities prove that fecal waste from nearby factory farms is contaminating their air and homes, strengthening legal cases against polluters.Researchers say the tool could support lawsuits and Environmental Protection Agency enforcement, especially as new clean air rules targeting livestock emissions take shape.Key quote:“When we’re telling the powers that be how bad it is sometimes, that our eyes are watering, our nose is running, and we’re coughing, sometimes we hear, ‘oh, it can’t be that bad’”.— Devon Hall Sr., director of Rural Empowerment Association for Community HelpWhy this matters:Factory farm air pollution is a serious but underregulated health threat, linked to asthma, respiratory illness, and mental health conditions.For communities buried in the stink of Big Ag, this little dust test could be a breath of fresh air — and a shot at justice. As federal oversight stalls and right-to-farm laws shield industry, tools like Pig-2-Bac give communities a rare shot at holding powerful companies accountable. Read more from EHN:Peak Pig: Read our full series on the fight for the soul of rural America.

Pollution
Health
Water

Pilot study finds fiber helps reduce PFAS levels in the body

A Canadian clinical trial published in the journal Environmental Health, found some reductions of PFAS concentrations in people taking dietary fiber supplements for 4 weeks.In short:The fiber intervention was successful at decreasing levels of PFOA and PFOS, long-chain PFAS that are now being replaced with short-chain PFAS.While PFAS levels were not linked to poor cholesterol levels, some of the short-chain PFAS were linked to markers of liver damage. This was the first time some of these short-chain PFAS have been found in Canadians. Key quote: “Results from this pilot analysis suggest a potentially practical and feasible intervention that may reduce human body burdens for some PFASs.” Why this matters: We are all exposed to PFAS via the water we drink, food we eat, air we breathe, and products we use. While long-chain PFAS are being phased out, they are still present in our bodies and the environment due to their persistence. Additional studies have found that fiber-rich diets and the consumption of fruits and vegetables are associated with lower PFAS concentrations; increasing fiber consumption may be a way that people can reduce their PFAS body burden and potentially help reduce health effects. Related EHN coverage: Individual actions such as eating more fiber can help an individual address their own exposure, but better regulations can reduce exposures throughout society: Stricter toxic chemical rules reduce Californians’ exposuresStates move to cement PFAS protections amid fears of federal rollbacksOp-ed: After decades of disinformation, the US finally begins regulating PFAS chemicals More resources PFAS Exchange National Academies of Sciences, Engineering, and Medicine (NASEM): Guidance on PFAS Exposure, Testing, and Clinical Follow-Up Michigan State University’s CME course for medical professionals: Nonstick Nuisance: Medical Monitoring for PFAS Healthline: 16 easy ways to eat more fiber Schlezinger, Jennifer et al. for Environmental Health, 15 March 2025.

A Canadian clinical trial published in the journal Environmental Health, found some reductions of PFAS concentrations in people taking dietary fiber supplements for 4 weeks.In short:The fiber intervention was successful at decreasing levels of PFOA and PFOS, long-chain PFAS that are now being replaced with short-chain PFAS.While PFAS levels were not linked to poor cholesterol levels, some of the short-chain PFAS were linked to markers of liver damage. This was the first time some of these short-chain PFAS have been found in Canadians. Key quote: “Results from this pilot analysis suggest a potentially practical and feasible intervention that may reduce human body burdens for some PFASs.” Why this matters: We are all exposed to PFAS via the water we drink, food we eat, air we breathe, and products we use. While long-chain PFAS are being phased out, they are still present in our bodies and the environment due to their persistence. Additional studies have found that fiber-rich diets and the consumption of fruits and vegetables are associated with lower PFAS concentrations; increasing fiber consumption may be a way that people can reduce their PFAS body burden and potentially help reduce health effects. Related EHN coverage: Individual actions such as eating more fiber can help an individual address their own exposure, but better regulations can reduce exposures throughout society: Stricter toxic chemical rules reduce Californians’ exposuresStates move to cement PFAS protections amid fears of federal rollbacksOp-ed: After decades of disinformation, the US finally begins regulating PFAS chemicals More resources PFAS Exchange National Academies of Sciences, Engineering, and Medicine (NASEM): Guidance on PFAS Exposure, Testing, and Clinical Follow-Up Michigan State University’s CME course for medical professionals: Nonstick Nuisance: Medical Monitoring for PFAS Healthline: 16 easy ways to eat more fiber Schlezinger, Jennifer et al. for Environmental Health, 15 March 2025.

Chemicals
Food
Health

Analysis raises concerns about potential misuse of atrazine weedkiller in US Midwest

Editor's note: This story was originally published by The New Lede and is republished here with permission.Corn growers across Midwestern states appear to be flouting regulations aimed at protecting important waterways from contamination with toxic atrazine weedkiller, according to an analysis of satellite imagery and field data that comes as US regulators ponder changes to rules for use of the pesticide.The analysis, which was conducted by an agricultural industry consultant in Illinois and shared with The New Lede, found what could potentially be thousands of violations by farmers in Illinois and neighboring states. The analysis honed in on geographic points where farm fields planted by corn growers are seen closely abutting waterways, and assumes that farmers sprayed their crops with atrazine, a common practice in the US Midwest.Though it could not be determined if atrazine was used on the fields, the chemical is applied to the majority of corn acres in the state, and the satellite images show clear pathways for the flow of farm chemicals off the fields and into waters. Critics say the information exposes critical problems with current regulation of atrazine, which is known to pose an array of health risks to humans and animals and is considered a dangerous water contaminant.The images and supporting data from the analysis were submitted this week to the US Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) by the Center for Biological Diversity (CBD), which also obtained the information from the consultant, who wishes to remain anonymous.Though the analysis identified areas of concern in multiple states, it focuses on Illinois, the nation’s No. 2 corn-producing state. In just three counties of Illinois, and along key lakes that provide drinking water for the state, the analysis shows nearly 1,000 parcels of land where farmers planted corn and soybeans right up against rivers and streams and lakes, within required buffer zones where spraying atrazine is not allowed. (Farmers in the Midwest typically rotate planting corn and soy.) This satellite image shows surface runoff from an Illinois farm field channeling into concentrated flow paths, which causes washed out gullies that drag soil, pesticides, and fertilizers directly into an adjacent stream. Credit: The New Lede Overall, there were more than 1,420 individual sites on the parcels of land where cropped area was less than the required 66 feet from the nexus where runoff enters streams or rivers, according to the analysis. There were more than 100 parcels with crops planted closer than the 200-foot margin required as a no-spray zone along the edges of drinking water lakes and reservoirs. These buffer zones, or setbacks, are spelled out on atrazine’s label.“Given the high use of atrazine on corn in Illinois (estimated at 90%), the noted erosion adjacent to many of these fields, evidence of considerable channel runoff within many of these fields, and/or the presence of culverts/spillways that bypass filter strips in many of these fields, it is likely that many of these fields are a considerable source of atrazine in nearby surface water,” CBD said in its submission to the EPA.The analysis and supporting data must be taken into account by the EPA as it finalizes new rules designed to reduce atrazine runoff and provide better protection for waterways against atrazine contamination, the CBD asserts. The public comment period on the new plan closes on Friday.“Willful ignorance is no longer an option for EPA because we’re literally showing them how bad this problem is field-by-field in the most atrazine-contaminated state in the country,” said Nathan Donley, CBD’s environmental health science director.A history of contaminationAtrazine is the second-most commonly used herbicide in the US and most Midwestern states. Farmers rely heavily on the effectiveness of atrazine in killing weeds in corn fields, in particular, but the ample use has created concerns for water quality across corn-growing states.Research has shown that atrazine is an endocrine disruptor that has been linked to increased risk of various cancers, preterm birth, birth defects, and diminished immune function.Syngenta, the longtime maker of atrazine herbicides, paid over $100 million in 2012 to settle litigation with community water systems in six Midwestern states over atrazine contamination. But contaminated water has persisted as a problem.In Illinois, the focus of the analysis, many creeks, lakes and reservoirs have been found to be contaminated with atrazine, including those supplying public drinking water. More than 50 water utilities serving more than 150,000 people in Illinois were found to have atrazine contamination in water supplies at levels that exceed health guidelines set by the Environmental Working Group (EWG), according to a recent EWG drinking water quality report.With input from Syngenta, the agency has proposed making several changes to the rules around atrazine use, including establishing a “concentration-equivalent level of concern” (CELOC) at 9.7 parts per billion (ppb) in streams and lakes. That level is allowed before any mitigation efforts are required in any given watershed.The new CELOC is nearly three times higher than the level of 3.4 ppb proposed by the EPA in 2016 and reiterated by the agency as properly protective in 2022. But it is lower than levels historically allowed. The agency says the new limits will not create any human health risks and will be protective of aquatic life, including fish and amphibians.The agency additionally has proposed expanding the number of options of mitigation measures growers can choose from. The EPA describes its approach as aimed at providing “maximum flexibility (recognizing atrazine’s high benefits) while addressing the need for mitigation” of atrazine contamination.Under the measures proposed by the EPA, in areas where concentrations of atrazine in water exceeds the CELOC, farmers can pick and choose from a point-based “mitigation menu” meant to promote practices that reduce runoff. Some farmers can achieve points based on the properties of their fields or actions they take that are associated with lower runoffs.How many points farmers need varies by area, and includes factors, such as quantity of rainfall, soil type, and whether or not farmers irrigate or till their land. Farmers need up to six points to comply with the proposed label’s instructions. Practicing no-till farming yields three points, as does not irrigating.Critics say points are too easily achieved and will not do much to stop atrazine pollution of waterways. Looking only at Illinois as an example, using the field location analysis, the new mitigation plan would not reduce atrazine runoff in 99% of “runoff-vulnerable” fields in Illinois, CBD said. Even in watersheds where atrazine levels are more than four times higher than the CELOC, farmers would not need to do anything differently under EPA’s proposed mitigation plan, CBD said.In the CBD comments that accompany the data from the Illinois analysis, the CBD told the EPA that the contamination problem overall is “frightening.”“Atrazine contamination is so widespread that dangerous levels of the pesticide are predicted in waterways in 11,249 US watersheds … out of 82,921 watersheds in the continental US,” the CBD wrote in its letter to the EPA. “That is 1/8th of the landmass of the entire continental US. The contaminated areas include about 20% of all land used for US agriculture – roughly 250 million acres feeding into contaminated waterways throughout the country.”Where fields and water meetIn the analysis conducted by the agricultural consultant, satellite imagery showed a range of routes where runoff from farm fields appears to be entering surface waters. In one example, the consultant identified a field where cropped areas abutted up against a stream cutting through the field. Six erosion points were identified where water, soil, and farm chemicals could be carried directly into the water.The consultant said a complete assessment of Champaign County found 499 individual culvert/erosion points in 269 fields that border streams. Assuming the entire cropped area is sprayed, as is standard practice, those fields would be in violation of atrazine labels.Looking at Illinois lakes that supply drinking water to residents, the analysis found that 14 of those lakes had at least one field where crops were planted within the 200-foot zone that is supposed to serve as a buffer against runoff.And, as CBD reported to the EPA, there were 85 land parcels identified with “high runoff vulnerability” into the waterways that feed Lake Springfield, which serves 150,000 people and has a history of atrazine contamination problems.The imaging also shows sites of potential violations outside of properties managed by the Illinois Nature Preserves Commission, which include sensitive natural areas protected under state law. The properties include Wagon Lake, in southwestern Illinois and Calamus Lake, east of Springfield.“There is substantial evidence of widespread chemical misuse” in Illinois and other corn-growing states, the analysis by the consultant concludes.The Illinois Department of Agriculture, the agency that investigates pesticide misuse, declined an interview for this story, but spokesperson Lori Harlan said that “applicators are not required to submit their pesticide records, so the Illinois Department of Agriculture would not have a record of where atrazine applications occurred.”Some of the landowners identified in the analysis owned fields showing multiple points of potential runoff, but those landowners did not respond to requests for comment, and it is not known if they in fact applied atrazine near the waterways.Without landowner confirmation, it is impossible to know if the sites identified as potential sources of violations and atrazine runoff were sprayed with atrazine. Farmers could simply leave those cropped areas close to waterways unsprayed, or use a different weed treatment.Leaving portions of fields unsprayed would be unusual, however, said Vernon Rohrscheib, a farmer who also works as an herbicide applicator in Fairmount, Illinois. “There’s not many corn acres that don’t get some form of atrazine,” he said.Farmers or their hired applicators usually spray entire fields at a time, whenever possible. To spray a different herbicide mix on edges close to waterways, an applicator would have to load a different mix and come back a second time.Illinois corn farmer Tom Smith said the potential violations were “a pretty big deal.” Smith, who also grows soybeans and other crops, said he quit using atrazine years ago due to environmental concerns. He now grows some crops organically, without the use of pesticides.To truly reduce atrazine runoff and also atrazine drift, buffer zones, also called setbacks, are vital measures, and if farmers are not following those guidelines, it creates a significant problem, said Micheal Owen, a weed scientist and extension specialist who recently retired from Iowa State University.“Anything that potentially compromises the environment is important, and wrong,” Owen said.The EPA said it could not comment on the atrazine concerns. Syngenta did not respond to a request for comment.(Carey Gillam, managing editor of The New Lede, contributed to this report.)

Editor's note: This story was originally published by The New Lede and is republished here with permission.Corn growers across Midwestern states appear to be flouting regulations aimed at protecting important waterways from contamination with toxic atrazine weedkiller, according to an analysis of satellite imagery and field data that comes as US regulators ponder changes to rules for use of the pesticide.The analysis, which was conducted by an agricultural industry consultant in Illinois and shared with The New Lede, found what could potentially be thousands of violations by farmers in Illinois and neighboring states. The analysis honed in on geographic points where farm fields planted by corn growers are seen closely abutting waterways, and assumes that farmers sprayed their crops with atrazine, a common practice in the US Midwest.Though it could not be determined if atrazine was used on the fields, the chemical is applied to the majority of corn acres in the state, and the satellite images show clear pathways for the flow of farm chemicals off the fields and into waters. Critics say the information exposes critical problems with current regulation of atrazine, which is known to pose an array of health risks to humans and animals and is considered a dangerous water contaminant.The images and supporting data from the analysis were submitted this week to the US Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) by the Center for Biological Diversity (CBD), which also obtained the information from the consultant, who wishes to remain anonymous.Though the analysis identified areas of concern in multiple states, it focuses on Illinois, the nation’s No. 2 corn-producing state. In just three counties of Illinois, and along key lakes that provide drinking water for the state, the analysis shows nearly 1,000 parcels of land where farmers planted corn and soybeans right up against rivers and streams and lakes, within required buffer zones where spraying atrazine is not allowed. (Farmers in the Midwest typically rotate planting corn and soy.) This satellite image shows surface runoff from an Illinois farm field channeling into concentrated flow paths, which causes washed out gullies that drag soil, pesticides, and fertilizers directly into an adjacent stream. Credit: The New Lede Overall, there were more than 1,420 individual sites on the parcels of land where cropped area was less than the required 66 feet from the nexus where runoff enters streams or rivers, according to the analysis. There were more than 100 parcels with crops planted closer than the 200-foot margin required as a no-spray zone along the edges of drinking water lakes and reservoirs. These buffer zones, or setbacks, are spelled out on atrazine’s label.“Given the high use of atrazine on corn in Illinois (estimated at 90%), the noted erosion adjacent to many of these fields, evidence of considerable channel runoff within many of these fields, and/or the presence of culverts/spillways that bypass filter strips in many of these fields, it is likely that many of these fields are a considerable source of atrazine in nearby surface water,” CBD said in its submission to the EPA.The analysis and supporting data must be taken into account by the EPA as it finalizes new rules designed to reduce atrazine runoff and provide better protection for waterways against atrazine contamination, the CBD asserts. The public comment period on the new plan closes on Friday.“Willful ignorance is no longer an option for EPA because we’re literally showing them how bad this problem is field-by-field in the most atrazine-contaminated state in the country,” said Nathan Donley, CBD’s environmental health science director.A history of contaminationAtrazine is the second-most commonly used herbicide in the US and most Midwestern states. Farmers rely heavily on the effectiveness of atrazine in killing weeds in corn fields, in particular, but the ample use has created concerns for water quality across corn-growing states.Research has shown that atrazine is an endocrine disruptor that has been linked to increased risk of various cancers, preterm birth, birth defects, and diminished immune function.Syngenta, the longtime maker of atrazine herbicides, paid over $100 million in 2012 to settle litigation with community water systems in six Midwestern states over atrazine contamination. But contaminated water has persisted as a problem.In Illinois, the focus of the analysis, many creeks, lakes and reservoirs have been found to be contaminated with atrazine, including those supplying public drinking water. More than 50 water utilities serving more than 150,000 people in Illinois were found to have atrazine contamination in water supplies at levels that exceed health guidelines set by the Environmental Working Group (EWG), according to a recent EWG drinking water quality report.With input from Syngenta, the agency has proposed making several changes to the rules around atrazine use, including establishing a “concentration-equivalent level of concern” (CELOC) at 9.7 parts per billion (ppb) in streams and lakes. That level is allowed before any mitigation efforts are required in any given watershed.The new CELOC is nearly three times higher than the level of 3.4 ppb proposed by the EPA in 2016 and reiterated by the agency as properly protective in 2022. But it is lower than levels historically allowed. The agency says the new limits will not create any human health risks and will be protective of aquatic life, including fish and amphibians.The agency additionally has proposed expanding the number of options of mitigation measures growers can choose from. The EPA describes its approach as aimed at providing “maximum flexibility (recognizing atrazine’s high benefits) while addressing the need for mitigation” of atrazine contamination.Under the measures proposed by the EPA, in areas where concentrations of atrazine in water exceeds the CELOC, farmers can pick and choose from a point-based “mitigation menu” meant to promote practices that reduce runoff. Some farmers can achieve points based on the properties of their fields or actions they take that are associated with lower runoffs.How many points farmers need varies by area, and includes factors, such as quantity of rainfall, soil type, and whether or not farmers irrigate or till their land. Farmers need up to six points to comply with the proposed label’s instructions. Practicing no-till farming yields three points, as does not irrigating.Critics say points are too easily achieved and will not do much to stop atrazine pollution of waterways. Looking only at Illinois as an example, using the field location analysis, the new mitigation plan would not reduce atrazine runoff in 99% of “runoff-vulnerable” fields in Illinois, CBD said. Even in watersheds where atrazine levels are more than four times higher than the CELOC, farmers would not need to do anything differently under EPA’s proposed mitigation plan, CBD said.In the CBD comments that accompany the data from the Illinois analysis, the CBD told the EPA that the contamination problem overall is “frightening.”“Atrazine contamination is so widespread that dangerous levels of the pesticide are predicted in waterways in 11,249 US watersheds … out of 82,921 watersheds in the continental US,” the CBD wrote in its letter to the EPA. “That is 1/8th of the landmass of the entire continental US. The contaminated areas include about 20% of all land used for US agriculture – roughly 250 million acres feeding into contaminated waterways throughout the country.”Where fields and water meetIn the analysis conducted by the agricultural consultant, satellite imagery showed a range of routes where runoff from farm fields appears to be entering surface waters. In one example, the consultant identified a field where cropped areas abutted up against a stream cutting through the field. Six erosion points were identified where water, soil, and farm chemicals could be carried directly into the water.The consultant said a complete assessment of Champaign County found 499 individual culvert/erosion points in 269 fields that border streams. Assuming the entire cropped area is sprayed, as is standard practice, those fields would be in violation of atrazine labels.Looking at Illinois lakes that supply drinking water to residents, the analysis found that 14 of those lakes had at least one field where crops were planted within the 200-foot zone that is supposed to serve as a buffer against runoff.And, as CBD reported to the EPA, there were 85 land parcels identified with “high runoff vulnerability” into the waterways that feed Lake Springfield, which serves 150,000 people and has a history of atrazine contamination problems.The imaging also shows sites of potential violations outside of properties managed by the Illinois Nature Preserves Commission, which include sensitive natural areas protected under state law. The properties include Wagon Lake, in southwestern Illinois and Calamus Lake, east of Springfield.“There is substantial evidence of widespread chemical misuse” in Illinois and other corn-growing states, the analysis by the consultant concludes.The Illinois Department of Agriculture, the agency that investigates pesticide misuse, declined an interview for this story, but spokesperson Lori Harlan said that “applicators are not required to submit their pesticide records, so the Illinois Department of Agriculture would not have a record of where atrazine applications occurred.”Some of the landowners identified in the analysis owned fields showing multiple points of potential runoff, but those landowners did not respond to requests for comment, and it is not known if they in fact applied atrazine near the waterways.Without landowner confirmation, it is impossible to know if the sites identified as potential sources of violations and atrazine runoff were sprayed with atrazine. Farmers could simply leave those cropped areas close to waterways unsprayed, or use a different weed treatment.Leaving portions of fields unsprayed would be unusual, however, said Vernon Rohrscheib, a farmer who also works as an herbicide applicator in Fairmount, Illinois. “There’s not many corn acres that don’t get some form of atrazine,” he said.Farmers or their hired applicators usually spray entire fields at a time, whenever possible. To spray a different herbicide mix on edges close to waterways, an applicator would have to load a different mix and come back a second time.Illinois corn farmer Tom Smith said the potential violations were “a pretty big deal.” Smith, who also grows soybeans and other crops, said he quit using atrazine years ago due to environmental concerns. He now grows some crops organically, without the use of pesticides.To truly reduce atrazine runoff and also atrazine drift, buffer zones, also called setbacks, are vital measures, and if farmers are not following those guidelines, it creates a significant problem, said Micheal Owen, a weed scientist and extension specialist who recently retired from Iowa State University.“Anything that potentially compromises the environment is important, and wrong,” Owen said.The EPA said it could not comment on the atrazine concerns. Syngenta did not respond to a request for comment.(Carey Gillam, managing editor of The New Lede, contributed to this report.)

Agriculture
Animals
Chemicals

Asteroid 2024 YR4 Could Hit the Moon, Measles Cases Rise, and States Sue HHS

States sue HHS for public health cuts, measles cases continue to rise, and a study finds Americans live shorter lives compared with their European counterparts.

American Lifespans, Monkeys That Yodel, Measles, and MoreStates sue HHS for public health cuts, measles cases continue to rise, and a study finds Americans live shorter lives compared with their European counterparts.By Rachel Feltman, Fonda Mwangi & Alex Sugiura Anaissa Ruiz Tejada/Scientific AmericanRachel Feltman: Happy Monday, listeners! And happy April. For Scientific American’s Science Quickly, I’m Rachel Feltman. Let’s kick off the week with a quick roundup of science news you might have missed.To start we have some public health updates. Last Friday the Texas health department reported that there have been 481 known measles cases since late January, up from 400 on March 28. Texas Public Radio recently reported that several children with measles have also needed treatment for toxic levels of vitamin A. As I explained in the March 10 news roundup episode, U.S. Health and Human Services Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. has publicly touted vitamin A supplementation for measles patients while seemingly downplaying the importance of vaccines. According to a recent report by ProPublica, U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention leaders blocked the release of an assessment on the ongoing outbreak written by the agency’s own experts. The planned messaging around the assessment reportedly would have emphasized the need for vaccinations to prevent measles. In a statement to ProPublica, a CDC spokesperson claimed that this report was not published “because it does not say anything that the public doesn’t already know” and that the CDC still presents vaccines as “the best way to protect against measles.” But the spokesperson went on to add that “the decision to vaccinate is a personal one,” saying folks “should be informed about the potential risks and benefits associated with vaccines.”Now the good news is that we know a lot about the risks associated with the measles vaccine, and they’re extremely low. For instance, one study used the mass vaccination of 14.3 million kids in China from September 2007 to March 2008 to track the rate of serious adverse events. The researchers saw a rate of just over two such events for every million vaccine doses given. In contrast, one in every 1,000 cases of measles is associated with encephalitis, or swelling of the brain, which can be deadly. And several major studies have found no link between the measles-mumps-rubella vaccine and autism diagnoses.On supporting science journalismIf you're enjoying this article, consider supporting our award-winning journalism by subscribing. By purchasing a subscription you are helping to ensure the future of impactful stories about the discoveries and ideas shaping our world today.The CDC’s stifling of this new measles report isn’t the only indication that the current administration is downplaying the importance of vaccines. Late last month top U.S. Food and Drug Administration vaccine official Peter Marks resigned from his position. According to the Wall Street Journal and New York Times, Marks was given the choice between quitting and being fired.Meanwhile, lawmakers from 23 states and Washington, D.C., are suing HHS for slashing more than $11 billion in funding for public health initiatives. We actually mentioned those cuts in last week’s news roundup. They mainly target funds that were allocated to local and state health departments during the peak of the COVID pandemic. According to the lawsuit, which was filed last Tuesday, that money was never earmarked as being solely for pandemic-response initiatives like COVID testing. Some of the funding has been directed toward strengthening public health infrastructure to make states and communities more resilient to pandemics and other major crises, including measles outbreaks, the spread of bird flu and the ongoing opioid epidemic, according to the lawmakers. Last week, NBC News reported that the Dallas County Health and Human Services Department had to cancel dozens of planned free measles vaccination clinics due to these same funding cuts.Speaking of health in the U.S., a new study suggests that folks in America live shorter lives than their economic counterparts in Europe. In a study published last Wednesday in the New England Journal of Medicine, researchers compared data from more than 73,000 adults aged 50 to 85. The scientists found, unsurprisingly, that in any given country, people with more money tended to live longer. But the researchers also found that the wealthiest U.S. subjects had shorter lifespans, on average, than the richest participants from Europe. And in parts of western Europe such as Germany, France and the Netherlands some of the poorest residents had lifespans in line with the wealthiest Americans. The study authors say this is a reminder that systemic issues in the U.S. such as stress, diet and environmental contaminants aren’t something you can spend your way out of.Okay, let’s pivot to lighter news. Remember that killer asteroid we were all worried about for a minute? Wouldn’t you rather talk about killer asteroids? I know I would.The good news is that observations made with the James Webb Space Telescope have confirmed that 2024 YR4 functionally has zero chance of hitting Earth in 2032. Yay! The bad news is that there’s still a nonzero possibility that our moon will take the hit instead—about a 2 percent chance, to be exact.And it turns out that a moon collision might not be bad news at all. Several astronomers told New Scientist that such an event would represent a huge opportunity for research. One even said he had his fingers crossed. We know the moon is pelted with smaller asteroids all the time, and its iconically pocked surface tells us it’s taken on bigger bruisers in the past. Knowing in advance that something was going to collide with the moon—and having the time to be certain of its dimensions and trajectory—would enable unprecedented study of the formation of lunar craters. That could help us understand the moon’s past.We’ll wrap up with a fun animal story. Because you’ve earned it!When you think of yodeling you probably imagine people in the Alps wearing wooden shoes or maybe Julie Andrews in The Sound of Music. But a study published last Thursday throws a dark horse into the competition for world’s best yodeler: monkeys.Researchers were interested in structures called vocal membranes, which apes and monkeys have in their throats but humans no longer do. Using CT scans of several species of monkey, along with computer simulations and fieldwork, researchers found that these structures help monkeys accomplish so-called voice breaks, where they quickly switch between using their vocal membranes and vocal folds to produce sound. The result is that quick change in frequency we hear when humans yodel or make that quintessential Tarzan yelp.Here’s an example from the tufted capuchin.[CLIP: A tufted capuchin vocalizes.]Feltman: That might not sound very yodel-y, but things get clearer when you slow the call down.[CLIP: The tufted capuchin’s vocalization is slowed down.]Feltman: Previous research has suggested that humans gave up these membranes to make our speech more stable. But I guess that might have come at the cost of some sick yodelling skills.That’s all for this week’s science news roundup. We’ll be back on Wednesday.Science Quickly is produced by me, Rachel Feltman, along with Fonda Mwangi, Kelso Harper, Naeem Amarsy and Jeff DelViscio. This episode was edited by Alex Sugiura. Shayna Posses and Aaron Shattuck fact-check our show. Our theme music was composed by Dominic Smith. Subscribe to Scientific American for more up-to-date and in-depth science news.For Scientific American, this is Rachel Feltman. Have a great week!

Health
Animals
Science

Wildfire Smoke Increases Risk Of Mental Health Problems

By Dennis Thompson HealthDay ReporterMONDAY, April 7, 2025 (HealthDay News) -- Smoke from wildfires driving you mad?You’re not alone, a new study...

By Dennis Thompson HealthDay ReporterMONDAY, April 7, 2025 (HealthDay News) -- Smoke from wildfires driving you mad?You’re not alone, a new study says.Short-term exposure to air choked with wildfire smoke increases people’s risk of mental health problems, according to findings published April 4 in JAMA Network Open.Hospital emergency rooms experience surges in patients with mental health conditions on days when smoke pollution is at its worst, researchers found.“Wildfire smoke isn’t just a respiratory issue — it affects mental health, too,” said corresponding author Dr. Kari Nadeau, chair of environmental health at the Harvard T.H. Chan School of Public Health.“Our study suggests that — in addition to the trauma a wildfire can induce — smoke itself may play a direct role in worsening mental health conditions like depression, anxiety, and mood disorders,” Nadeau added in a news release.For the study, researchers tracked levels of particle pollution caused by California wildfires that occurred between July and December 2020 — the state’s most severe wildfire season on record.They compared that data to ER visits for mental health problems, and found that exposure to wildfire smoke substantially increased the number.Specifically, a 10 microgram-per-cubic-meter increase in wildfire particle pollution was linked to more ER visits for:Any mental health condition, with an 8% increased risk. Depression, with a 15% increased risk. Other mood disorders, with a 29% increased risk. Anxiety, with a 6% increased risk. Women and children were at higher risk for mental health problems linked to wildfire smoke, with a 17% and 46% increased risk, respectively.Results also showed that Black people had a more than the double the risk of mood disorders related to wildfire smoke exposure, and Hispanic people had a 30% increased risk.“The disparities in impact by race, sex, age and insurance status suggest that existing health inequities may be worsened by wildfire smoke exposure,” lead investigator YounSoo Jung, a research associate with the Harvard TH Chan School of Public Health, said in a news release.Based on these results, hospitals should brace for potential increases in mental health emergencies during wildfires, researchers said.“We need to make sure everyone has access to mental health care during wildfire seasons, particularly the most vulnerable groups and particularly as wildfires become more frequent and severe as a result of climate change,” Jung said.SOURCE: Harvard T.H. Chan School of Public Health, news release, April 4, 2025Copyright © 2025 HealthDay. All rights reserved.

Health
Climate
Pollution

Ozone Pollution Increases Risk Of Childhood Asthma

By Dennis Thompson HealthDay ReporterMONDAY, April 7, 2025 (HealthDay News) -- Ozone air pollution increases the risk of asthma among preschoolers...

By Dennis Thompson HealthDay ReporterMONDAY, April 7, 2025 (HealthDay News) -- Ozone air pollution increases the risk of asthma among preschoolers and kindergarteners, a new study says.Relatively small increases in ozone smog in a child’s first two years of life is associated with an increased risk of asthma and wheeze at 4 to 6 years of age, researchers reported April 2 in JAMA Network Open.However, ozone exposure didn’t increase risk of asthma at ages 8 and 9, results show.“It’s a puzzling finding,” said lead researcher Logan Dearborn, a doctoral student with the University of Washington Department of Environmental & Occupational Health Sciences. “It’s something we spent a long time trying to consider, and I don’t know if we ever came up with a satisfying answer.”“But these findings are important,” Dearborn added in a news release. “Even if we only see the effects early in life, there are still all kinds of associated health care costs and stresses for families.”For the study, researchers analyzed data on more than 1,100 children from a federal research project investigating how environmental factors can affect children’s health. The children lived in six cities – Minneapolis; San Francisco; Seattle; Memphis, Tenn.; Rochester, N.Y.; and Yakima, Wash.The team compared kids’ asthma and wheeze as reported by their moms to federal data on ozone pollution in their area.Previous studies have linked childhood asthma to exposure to fine particulate and nitrogen dioxide air pollution, researchers said in background notes.But it’s been unclear whether asthma can be triggered by exposure to ozone, the pollutant that most often exceeds U.S. air quality standards, researchers said.Ozone pollution is formed when sunlight bakes emissions from cars, power plants and industrial facilities, according to the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA). Results showed that if toddlers are exposed to a relatively small increase in ozone exposure of 2 parts per billion, they have a 31% increased risk of asthma and 30% increased risk of wheeze at ages 4 to 6.Ozone also stood out when researchers analyzed how exposure to mixtures of three common air pollutants – ozone, nitrogen dioxide and fine particulates – affected asthma risk, results show.“We interpret trends, and what we can conclude from this analysis is that when ozone within the air pollution mixture was higher than about 25 parts per billion, we saw a higher probability of asthma regardless of the concentration of nitrogen dioxide,” Dearborn said.“We found a relationship between ozone and asthma only when fine particulate matter was at or above median concentrations, giving novel evidence that the relationship between ozone and childhood asthma may depend on the concentration of other pollutants, like fine particulate matter,” he added.Further research is needed to determine why ozone exposure doesn’t increase asthma risk at ages 8 and 9, and whether the risk increases again as children become tweens and teens, researchers said.But these results indicate that parents and regulators should take ozone pollution seriously when it comes to kids’ health.“In the United States, ozone regulations only consider a very short time period,” Dearborn said. “We don’t regulate ozone over the long term, and that’s where this analysis fits in. Maybe we should be considering both a short- and a long-term threshold for the regulation of ozone.”SOURCE: University of Washington, news release, April 2, 2025Copyright © 2025 HealthDay. All rights reserved.

Pollution
Health

The Rio Grande Valley was once covered in forest. One man is trying to bring it back.

The Tamaulipan thornforest once covered 1 million acres on both sides of the border with Mexico. Restoring even a fraction of it could help the region cope with the ravages of a warming world.

Sign up for The Brief, The Texas Tribune’s daily newsletter that keeps readers up to speed on the most essential Texas news. This story was produced by Grist and co-published with the Texas Tribune. Jon Dale was 15 and an avid birder when he began planting native seedlings beside his house in Harlingen to attract more birds. He hoped to restore a bit of the Tamaulipan thornforest, a dense mosaic of at least 1,200 plants where ocelots, jaguars, and jaguarundis once prowled among hundreds of varieties of birds and butterflies. Developers began clearing the land in the early 1900s, and Dale's own father bulldozed some of the last coastal tracts in the 1950s. Today, less than 10 percent of the forest that formerly blanketed the Rio Grande Valley still stands. The U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service has restored 16,000 acres since the 1980s in a bid to protect endangered ocelots, but Dale wanted to do more. Dale, now 45, is still at it. He is a director at American Forests, which has toiled for 150 years to restore ecosystems nationwide. The nonprofit started working in the Valley in 1997 and took over the federal restoration effort last year. It also leads the Thornforest Conservation Partnership, a coalition of agencies and organizations hoping to restore at least 81,444 acres, the amount needed for the ocelot population to rebound. Although conservation remains the core mission, everyone involved understands, and promotes, the thornforest’s ability to boost community resilience to the ravages of a warming world. Climate change will only bring more bouts of extreme weather to Texas, and the Valley — one of the state’s poorest regions, but quickly urbanizing — is ill-equipped to deal with it. Dale believes urban thornforests, which can mature in just 10 years, provide climate benefits that will blossom for decades: providing shade, preserving water, reducing erosion, and soaking up stormwater. To prove it, American Forests is launching its first “community forest” in the flood-prone neighborhood of San Carlos, an effort it hopes to soon replicate throughout the region. “People need more tools in the tool kit to actually mitigate climate change impact,” Dale says. “It’s us saying, ‘This is going to be a tool.’ It’s been in front of us this whole time.” *** The Rio Grande Valley already grapples with climatic challenges. Each summer brings a growing number of triple-digit days. Sea level rise and beach erosion claim a bit more coastline every year. Chronic drought slowly depletes the river, an essential source of irrigation and drinking water for nearly 1.4 million people. Flooding, long a problem, worsens as stormwater infrastructure lags behind frenzied development. Three bouts of catastrophic rain between 2018 and 2020 caused more than $1.3 billion in damage, with one storm dumping 15 inches in six hours and destroying some 1,200 homes. Floods pose a particular threat to low-income communities, called colonias, that dot unincorporated areas and lack adequate drainage and sewage systems. San Carlos, in northern Hidalgo County, is home to 3,000 residents, 21 percent of whom live in poverty. Eight years ago, a community center and park opened, providing a much-needed gathering place for locals. While driving by the facility, which sits in front of a drainage basin, Dale had a thought: Why not also plant a small thornforest — a shady place that would provide respite from the sun and promote environmental literacy while managing storm runoff? Although the community lies beyond the acreage American Forests has eyed for restoration, Dale mentioned the idea to County Commissioner Ellie Torres. She deemed it “a no-brainer.” Since her election in 2018, Torres has worked to expand stormwater infrastructure. “We have to look for other creative ways [to address flooding] besides digging trenches and extending drainage systems,” she says. Credit: Laura Mallonee/Grist A thornforest’s flood-fighting power lies in its roots, which loosen the soil so “it acts more like a sponge,” says Bradley Christoffersen, an ecologist at the University of Texas Rio Grande Valley. Urban trees can reduce runoff by as much as 26 percent because their canopies intercept rainfall and their roots help absorb it, saving cities millions in annual stormwater mitigation and environmental impact costs. This effect varies from place to place, so American Forests hopes to enlist researchers to study the community forest's impact in San Carlos. That sentiment has grown as cities across the Valley embrace green infrastructure. Brownsville is planting a “pocket prairie” of thornforest species like brasil, colima, and Tamaulipan fiddlewood in one drainage area. McAllen, about an hour to the west, has enlisted the help of a local thornforest refuge to add six miniature woodlands to school playgrounds, libraries, and other urban locations. The biggest challenge to greater adoption of this approach is “a lack of plant distributors that carry the really cool native thornscrub species,” says Brownsville city forester Hunter Lohse. “We’re trying to get plant suppliers to move away from the high-maintenance tropical plants they’ve been selling for 50 years.” *** American Forests doesn’t have that problem. Two dedicated employees roam public lands to collect seeds, some of which weigh less than a small feather. They typically gather more than 100 pounds of them each year and stash them in refrigerators or freezers at Marinoff Nursery, a government-owned, 15,000-square-foot facility in Alamo that the nonprofit runs. That may sound like a lot of seed, but it’s only sufficient to raise about 150,000 seedlings. Another 50,000 plants provided by contract growers allows them to reforest some 200 acres. At that rate, without additional funding and an expansion of its operation, it could take four centuries to achieve its goal of restoring nearly 82,000 acres throughout the Valley. “These fields are probably one generation, maximum, from turning into housing,” Dale says. Credit: Laura Mallonee/Grist Funding is a serious challenge, though. In 2024, American Forests began a $10 million contract with the Fish & Wildlife Service to reforest 800 acres (including 200 the agency’s job solicitation noted was lost to the construction of a section of border wall). That comes to $12,500 an acre, suggesting it could take more than $1 billion to restore just what the ocelots need. Despite this, Dale says any restoration, no matter how small, is “worth the investment.” The nursery is currently growing 4,000 seedlings for four more community plots, each an acre or two in size. For now, nursery workers just have to keep the plants alive. All of them are naturally drought-resistant, and raised with an eye toward the lives they’ll lead. “We don’t baby them or coddle them,” senior reforestation manager Murisol Kuri says. “We want to make sure they are acclimated enough so when we plant they can withstand the heat and lack of water.” Credit: Laura Mallonee/Grist Despite this, on average, 20 percent of plants die, partly due to drought. It underscores the complexity of American Forest’s undertaking: While thornforest restoration can help mitigate climate change, it only works if the plants can stand up to the weather. The organization expects that in the future, species that require at least 20 inches of annual rainfall could perish (some, like the Montezuma cypress and cedar elm, are already dying). That doesn’t necessarily doom an ecosystem, but it does create opportunities for nonnative fauna to push out endemic plants. Removing them is a hassle, so it is best to avoid letting them take root. “If you don’t do this right, it can blow up in your face,” Dale says. Hoping to evade this fate with its restored thornforests, American Forests has created a playbook of “climate-informed” planting. The six tips include shielding seedlings inside polycarbonate tubes, which ward against strong winds and hungry critters while mimicking the cooler conditions beneath tree canopies. Seedling survival rates shot up as much as 90 percent once American Forests adopted the technique a decade ago. Another strategy seems abundantly obvious: Select species that can endure future droughts. Christoffersen, the University of Texas ecologist, and his students have surveyed restoration sites dating to the 1980s to see which plants thrived. The winners? Trees like Texas ebony and mesquite that have thorns to protect them from munching animals and long roots to tap moisture deep within the earth. Guayacan and snake eye, two species abundant in surviving patches of the original Tamaulipan thornforest, didn’t fare nearly as well when planted on degraded agricultural lands and would require careful management, as would wild lime and saffron plum. Credit: Laura Mallonee/Grist Altering the thornforest’s composition by picking and choosing the heartiest plants would decrease overall diversity, but increase the odds of it reaching maturity and bringing its conservation and climate benefits to the region. A 40-acre planting at Laguna Atascosa National Wildlife Refuge reveals how quickly this can happen. Five years ago, a tractor wove through the site cultivating sorghum, which gave way to 40,000 seedlings. Today, the biggest trees stand 10 feet tall, with thorns high enough to snag clothing. This little patch of the past does more than preserve the region’s biological history or defend it from a warming world. It’s an attempt to reverse what naturalist Robert Pyle calls an “extinction of experience.” Most people have never even heard of a thornforest, let alone witnessed its wild beauty at Santa Ana. Dale and those working alongside him to revive what’s been lost want others to know the value this ecosystem holds beyond saving ocelots or mitigating climate change. His grandfather was a preacher, and that influence is evident as he speaks of the “almost transcendental” feeling he gets simply being in nature. “I’ve talked to people, and it’s like, ‘Do you know how this is going to enrich your life?’” Tickets are on sale now for the 15th annual Texas Tribune Festival, Texas’ breakout ideas and politics event happening Nov. 13–15 in downtown Austin. Get tickets before May 1 and save big! TribFest 2025 is presented by JPMorganChase.

Forests
Animals
Conservation

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