Must-read recap: The New Lede's top stories

Failure to clean up Hunters Point; streams and water quality; plastics lawsuits; nuclear plant loan; plastic baby bottles; chemicals and infertility; biofuels and air pollution; wildfire toll.

US failed to clean up radioactive Superfund site, lawsuit claims

The US government has failed dangerously in its duty to clean up a radioactive former naval shipyard in San Francisco, jeopardizing the health of community members for decades and potentially putting hundreds of thousands of people at risk if plans to turn the site into a residential area materialize, alleges a lawsuit filed on Friday.

The lawsuit, which was filed in the US District Court for the Northern District of California by the group Greenaction for Health and Environmental Justice, alleges that both the Navy and the US Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) violated the federal law that governs Superfund site cleanups known as the Comprehensive Environmental Response, Compensation, and Liability Act (CERCLA).

The Navy has not properly characterized the full extent of the contamination at the Hunters Point Naval Shipyard, according to the complaint, and failed to follow through on its promise to retest all the soil that was improperly remediated by a former contractor, Tetra Tech. (Read the rest of the story.)

Rain-fed streams lacking federal protections are vital for water quality, study finds

New data supports environmental advocates’ long-held position that small, rain-fed streams make major contributions to water quality in rivers and lakes across the US.

So-called “ephemeral streams,” which only flow after precipitation falls and are not currently protected under the Clean Water Act, contribute more than half of the water discharged from US regional rivers, according to the study, which published on Thursday in the journal Science. These streams are likely a major pathway for downstream water pollution, the study concluded.

The findings back concerns that a 2023 US Supreme Court decision in the case titled Sackett v. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) may put many US waterways and communities living downstream at risk of exposure to pollutants. The ruling effectively removed federal protections for ephemeral streams and wetlands, narrowly defining “waters of the United States” as “relatively permanent, standing or continuously flowing bodies of water.” (Read the rest of the story.)

Plastics producers face potential wave of lawsuits, report suggests

As scientific understanding and public awareness of the health and environmental harms of plastics pollution continues to mount, plastics producers and plastic packaging manufacturers could face a rising tide of lawsuits from communities and states seeking to recover damage costs, a new report suggests.

The report, released on Wednesday from the Center for International Environmental Law (CIEL), details the substantial impacts of plastic pollution and related burdens on local governments, and explains how the plastics industry could be held legally responsible for these quantifiable harms and costs.

“The plastics crisis is causing harm to individuals, to communities, and to ecosystems,” said Steven Feit, a senior attorney at CIEL and co-author of the report. “There is going to be a [rising] wave of litigation in the plastics context, particularly as the evidence and the understanding of those impacts accrues.” (Read the rest of the story.)

California set to loan $400 million to controversial nuclear power plant

California will loan $400 million to utility Pacific Gas & Electric (PG&E) to keep the state’s last nuclear power plant running, according to the final budget deal between the Legislature and Gov. Gavin Newsom. 

The agreement authorizes a $400 million loan from the state’s general fund to help PG&E continue operating the Diablo Canyon Nuclear Power Plant near San Luis Obispo, California, according to the California Department of Water Resources. 

Diablo Canyon, which accounts for about 9% of the state’s total electricity supply, became California’s last operating nuclear power plant after the closure of the San Onofre Nuclear Generating Station in 2013. The plant has been controversial from the beginning, as some environmentalist and anti-nuclear organizations fear the plant could suffer a catastrophic failure and endanger nearby communities.  (Read the rest of the story.)

Baby bottle makers deceive parents over dangers of plastic products, lawsuits allege

Two US baby bottle makers have been engaging in a “campaign of reckless deceit” about the dangers microplastics in their products pose to infants and young children, according to a new lawsuits filed Tuesday.

In the separate court filings, lawyers representing a small group of California parents alleged that Philips North America and the Handi-Craft Co. marketed baby bottles and plastic cups as safe for children even though they knew that when the products were heated microplastics from the containers could leach into the food and liquids being served to the children. Parents often microwave or otherwise warm bottles of breast milk or formula before serving them to babies.

“This disregard for the safety and well-being of society’s most vulnerable members has placed the health and welfare of millions of children in jeopardy as well as duped consumers out of millions of dollars,” the lawsuits claim. The companies have “callously brought to life every parent’s worst nightmare: unknowingly harming their children through a product they believed was safe,” according to the lawsuits. (Read the rest of the story.)

New test finds more than 50 common chemicals may be linked to infertility

Using a new testing tool, US researchers said this week they have found more than 50 chemicals that pose a strong risk to fertility, including chemicals used in plastic water bottles and other common products.

The study, published in Reproductive Toxicology, detailed a newly developed method for testing chemical toxicity, a tool the researchers said is badly needed because tens of thousands of chemicals used in household and commercial products have not been evaluated for their potential toxicities towards human health.

“This data shows that we need to be acting more quickly on some of these chemicals to which people are being exposed,” said Tracey Woodruff, a professor at the University of California San Francisco (UCSF), and an author of the new study.

General fertility rates in the United States have been declining, hitting a historic low in 2022, according to the US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. (Read the rest of the story.)

Biofuels manufacturing found to be a significant source of hazardous air pollution

Hazardous air pollutants emitted in the manufacturing of biofuels is nearly as bad as air pollution stemming from oil refineries, and for several types of dangerous pollutants such as formaldehyde the emissions from biofuel production are far greater, a new report finds.

The assessment, which was conducted by researchers with the environmental watchdog group Environmental Integrity Project (EIP), looked at emissions generated by 275 ethanol, biodiesel and renewable diesel facilities in the United States. The researchers found that the facilities frequently violated air pollution permits while at the same time benefiting from legal exemptions and federal policy supports such as fuel-blending mandates.

As the biofuels industry continues expanding with more than 30 new facilities under construction or proposed, the industry should be seen as a threat to public health, the report warns. Stronger regulatory oversight from the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) is needed, according to EIP. (Read the rest of the story.)

Postcard from California: The human cost of living with wildfires

(Opinion columns published in The New Lede represent the views of the individual(s) authoring the columns and not necessarily the perspectives of TNL editors.)

The toll of wildfire in California is staggering: In the last 10 years, wildfires have burned more than 13.6 million acres of the state and taken the lives of 144 people, including 15 firefighters. The state estimates property damages from the more than 93,000 wildfires in those years at nearly $250 billion.

But sobering as those statistics are, they don’t measure the full cost to Californians from living with increasingly deadly and destructive wildfires.

A new study, led by researchers from the Fielding School of Public Health at the University of California at Los Angeles (UCLA), calculated that from 52,480 to 57,710 Californians died prematurely from exposure to wildfire smoke between 2008 and 2018. The study, published June 7 in the peer-reviewed journal Science Advances, estimated the economic impact of those lost lives at between $432 billion and $456 billion. (Read the rest of the opinion column.)