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

Trump-proofing the environment; polluting plastics plants; hydrogen hub build-out; a beef giant in Amish country; agrochemicals linked to prostate cancer; workers sue Napa Valley landfill.

Can anything be done to Trump-proof the environment?

As advocacy groups brace for a new administration under President-elect Donald Trump — fearing a slew of deregulation and policy changes that would undermine a range of environmental health measures — some are pondering ways to try to “Trump-proof” the planet.

Trump racked up the worst environmental record of any president during his first term, according to several advocacy organizations, and many worry his second time around will  be even worse.

They expect across-the-board cuts to federal budgets and staff, including the Environmental Protection Agency, Department of Interior, and other agencies that play key roles in protecting human and environmental health. And they forecast efforts to reverse environmentally friendly policies protested by powerful corporate players. (Read the rest of the story.)

US EPA enables polluting plastics plants by failing to update wastewater limits, report says

Federal regulators have enabled US plastics plants across the country to dump dangerous chemicals into waterways by failing to update wastewater limits for over 30 years, according to a new analysis by a watchdog group.

While the Clean Water Act requires the US Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) to review wastewater discharge limits every five years to keep up with advances in water treatment technologies, the agency has not updated its guidelines for the plastics sector since 1993.

“Most folks don’t know that the plastics industry is not required to use modern wastewater treatment controls to limit the amount of pollution they pour into our waterways,” Jen Duggan, the executive director of EIP, said in a press call Nov. 14. “It’s long past time these plants clean up.” (Read the rest of the story.)

What’s hampering federal environmental justice efforts in the hydrogen hub build-out

(This is part 2 of a 2-part series originally published at Environmental Health News. Read part 1: Hydrogen hubs test new federal environmental justice rules.)

One Wednesday evening last May, Yukyan Lam stared into the camera on her computer, delivering carefully prepared remarks during a virtual listening session convened by the US Department of Energy (DOE). 

The goal of the event was for the federal agency to hear concerns and questions from communities that could be impacted by the Mid-Atlantic hydrogen hub, one part of a massive federal program working to establish a national hydrogen energy network.

Lam, the director of research at The New School’s Tishman Environment & Design Center, had just three minutes to present research on a wide range of potential health impacts associated with carbon capture and storage and hydrogen energy deployment, including increased rates of respiratory issues, premature mortality, cardiovascular events, and negative birth outcomes. Later, after reading the DOE’s public summary of the event, she felt frustrated.  (Read the rest of the story.)

Hydrogen hubs test new environmental justice rules

(This is part 1 of a 2-part series originally published at Environmental Health News.) 

On a rainy day in September, Veronica Coptis and her two children stood on the shore of the Monongahela River in a park near their home, watching a pair of barges laden with mountainous heaps of coal disappear around the riverbend.

“I’m worried they’re not taking into account how much industrial traffic this river already sees, and how much the hydrogen hub is going to add to it,” Coptis said.

Coptis lives with her husband and their children in Carmichaels, Pennsylvania, a former coal town near the West Virginia border with a population of around 434. The local water authority uses the Monongahela as source water. Contaminants associated with industrial activity and linked to cancer, including bromodichloromethane, chloroform and dibromochloromethane, have been detected in the community’s drinking water. (Read the rest of the story.)

In Amish country, an unlikely partnership with beef giant JBS roils community

EDON, OH – For 60 years, this one stoplight Ohio town has been known as a place where time appears to stand still. With more than 400 Amish residents settled in and around the rural community that straddles the Ohio, Indiana, and Michigan state lines, it has been common to see large families traveling by horse-drawn black buggies to and from farms where they milk dairy cows and grow corn.

Adhering to a strict religious doctrine that resists new technology, Amish farmers here spent decades largely eschewing industrial farming practices that have become common around the United States.

But that bucolic tableau of plain people earnestly cultivating the rich soil is eroding here, splintered by an industrial farm alliance between one of the area’s leading Amish farming families and JBS Foods, the world’s largest beef producer. (Read the rest of the story.)

Over 20 agrochemicals, including herbicides, linked to prostate cancer

New research adds to evidence that several types of agrochemicals — including the widely used herbicides 2,4-D and glyphosate — may raise the risk of prostate cancer.

A study published Nov. 4 in the journal Cancer examined the relationship between the quantity of pesticides used in US counties over certain spans of time and then the rates of prostate cancer 14 years later. Nearly two dozen of these chemicals were consistently associated with an elevated risk of the disease, which is the most common cancer in men, and is considered the second-most deadly.

The results suggest more research is urgently needed to further understand the role these chemicals may play in the development of this and other cancers, the authors wrote. (Read the rest of the story.)

Napa Valley landfill dumped toxic waste into waterways for decades, workers allege in federal lawsuit

A California landfill has been illegally dumping toxic waste into the Napa River for years, polluting waters that feed a valley known around the world for the quality of its vineyards, according to a federal lawsuit filed by landfill employees.

Fifteen workers from Clover Flat Landfill and Upper Valley Disposal Service (UVDS) in Napa County, California, allege that operators of the landfill intentionally diverted what is called “leachate” – untreated liquid wastewater often containing heavy metals, nitrates, bacteria and pathogens – into the Napa River and other area waterways for decades. The actions were done to “avoid the costs of properly trucking out the toxic leachate” to facilities designated for safe disposal, the lawsuit alleges.

“Defendants’ deliberate pollution of the Napa River watershed with toxic wastewater is particularly disturbing because Napa Valley contains some of the most valuable agricultural land in the country, and water from the Napa River is used by local wineries to irrigate Napa’s famous vineyards, and is a significant community water resource,” the complaint said. (Read the rest of the story.)