Must-read recap: The New Lede's top stories
A look at people who live without running water in the US desert; the Roundup trial in St. Louis is underway; an interview with a scientist about the far-reaching dangers of wildfire smoke and more.
Growing up in south Texas, 25-year-old Joaquin Duran always wondered what it would be like to have running water. Before he was born, Duran’s parents moved from Juarez, Mexico to a small community called Cochran that lies within El Paso County. They hoped the enclave of Mexican-American families would be a safe place to raise their children and offer advantages not easily attained in Mexico.
The plot of land Duran’s parents purchased in Texas lacked running water when they settled in, but they were promised service was coming – only a year or two away. The family decided the wait would be worthwhile and they made the plot their home. During the day, Duran’s mother would scrub old concrete off the cinder blocks her husband retrieved from demolition work through his construction job. At night, they built their house from the salvaged materials.
Now, a quarter century later, water still has not arrived – for the Durans or for anyone else in the dry, dusty community of Cochran.
Cochran is one of over 2,000 colonias along the U.S.-Mexico border where 840,000 people live in substandard housing developments, including over 134,000 people who are not served by public water systems, waste treatment facilities, or both.
In many cases, the colonias are unincorporated “donut holes” – islands of scarcity surrounded by communities where clean running water is taken for granted. (This story is co-published with The Guardian.)
Roundup trial starts in St. Louis
A St. Louis jury on Wednesday heard opening statements in a new Roundup cancer trial that is the latest in a long line-up of coming courtroom battles over allegations that Monsanto’s popular weed killer causes cancer.
Plaintiffs’ lawyer Gibbs Henderson told jurors that evidence in the case would persuade them that exposure to Roundup caused each of his three clients to develop non-Hodgkin lymphoma (NHL), while Monsanto lawyer Manuel Cachan said he would present evidence that would completely dispute any causal connection.
Henderson said in his opening statement that he expects Monsanto to rely heavily on assessments by the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) that glyphosate, the main ingredient in Roundup, is “not likely” to be carcinogenic. But he said he and other lawyers representing the plaintiffs will show the jury a large body of scientific evidence showing the herbicide does cause cancer and that Monsanto engaged in tactics designed to hide that information from consumers.
Guest column: Prioritize children’s health above agribusiness profits
Many decades ago, my mother-in-law set an example I always try to follow: As an activist challenging certain government policies, she centered her work on a foundational question: Is it good for the children?
Now I’m doing the same, working through a group in the San Francisco Bay area to raise awareness about ties between childhood diseases and pesticides, and the growing economic and social burdens we all bear from overuse of these chemicals.
In 2012, The American Academy of Pediatrics urged policymakers to do more to protect children from pesticides. Yet, a decade little, our regulators have virtually ignored this plea.
In June, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) released data showing that out of 650 children tested, 87 percent had detectable levels of glyphosate – a weedkilling ingredient tied to cancer – in their urine.
Efforts to ban glyphosate, the active ingredient in Roundup herbicide, have been pushed in countries around the world, but have fallen short in the United States, despite the fact that in 2015 the International Agency for Research on Cancer (IARC) declared glyphosate to be a probable human carcinogen.
Wildfire smoke pollution poses far-reaching danger
As climate change brings drought and dried out landscapes, wildfires in the US West are spreading smoky air to millions of people, even those who live far from where the fires burn. The problem is becoming so pronounced that some television weather forecasters in California now include “smoke casts,” in their reports, displaying models that predict, like a weather forecast, where smoky air from a wildfire will travel days into the future.
Wildfires in 2015, 2017 and 2020 burned more than 10 million acres each, mostly in the western United States, releasing plumes of smoke that experts say now account for half of the air pollution in western states. The amount of US land burned by wildfires is about four times what it was forty years ago, researchers say, and the problem of the polluted air resulting from fires is growing.
Scientists warn that current health policies are not effectively protecting people against smoke inhalation dangers , and a new study published in July underscored how dangerous levels of tiny pollution particles in wildfire smoke travel into households not threatened by the fire itself.
The New Lede conducted a Q&A with one of the authors of that new study- Sam Heft-Neal is a wildfire researcher at Stanford University’s Environmental Change and Human Outcomes Lab (ECHO). (This story is co-published with The Guardian.)
US to bring “vital” wastewater services to underserved rural areas
The US Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) and US Department of Agriculture (USDA) said Tuesday they are launching a $12 billion initiative aimed at improving the nation’s wastewater infrastructure, with a focus on aiding underserved communities.
The “Closing America’s Wastewater Access Gap Community Initiative” will make use of $11.7 billion in loans and grants through the Bipartisan Infrastructure Law for projects that will start in several small towns, rural areas and on Tribal lands in six states.
More than two million people in the United States live without running water and basic indoor plumbing, according to a report by the US Water Alliance. Properly collecting and treating wastewater is essential to providing clean water and maintaining public health. But a lack of working wastewater management systems can expose humans to harmful sewage and the environment to nutrient pollution.
State and federal officials said they will work with eleven initial pilot communities to provide on-the-ground technical assistance, loans, and grants, to address infrastructure needs.
Dubbed a “climate haven,” a North Carolina community braces for change
From wildfires racing through the drought-stricken west, to heavy flooding in the central and eastern regions of the United States, extreme weather events are spurring many Americans to seek refuge in more environmentally stable cities, so-called “climate havens.”
On top of a list of identified ideal destinations is the town of Asheville, North Carolina, a community of roughly 100,000 people located in the western part of the coastal state amid the Blue Ridge Mountains. The climate haven label implies that the city is relatively more resilient to climate change than other places across the country, a reassuring safe space in the face of uncertainty.
There is great interest in growth in and around Asheville, according to Amanda Martin, chief resilience officer of the North Carolina Office of Recovery and Resiliency.
“Asheville’s long standing commitment to mitigating and adapting to climate change both in the public and private sector is a contributing factor in others labeling us a climate haven,” said Asheville Sustainability Director Bridget Herring.
But while some applaud the interest, others see brewing trouble. Many people are concerned that an influx of newcomers will upend sustainability efforts and come at the expense of Asheville’s most vulnerable communities.