Thousands of hazardous spills from industrial facilities still happen each year, disproportionately impacting low-income communities and communities of color. And yet the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency announced that it is standing by its decision to not issue federal safeguards to prevent them. Following decades of delays and an eventual court order, the agency agreed back in 2016 to finalize new chemical spill prevention rules, as required under the Clean Water Act. These protections would reduce the chance of disasters, like the 2014 spill of coal-processing chemicals into Charleston, West Virginia’s Elk River, from impacting nearby drinking water supplies. But now the Trump administration refuses to follow through on even that long-delayed plan.
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Press Release
The Environmental Protection Agency made clear today that it will continue ignoring its responsibility to curtail chemical spills from industrial facilities, a decision that is in blatant disregard of the Clean Water Act and a settlement the agency agreed to…
Expert BlogNRDC
The agency is brazenly refusing to consent to a court order to issue standards to prevent such incidents.
Press Release
WASHINGTON (February 17, 2016) – The Environmental Protection Agency will put in place new safeguards to help protect communities from dangerous chemical spills at tens of thousands of industrial facilities nationwide, under the terms of a legal settlement approved by…
Expert BlogErik D. Olson, Daniel Rosenberg
EPA Administrator Scott Pruitt continues to shirk his obligations to protect public health and the environment. This week, he blew off the Agency's commitment (in a court settlement no less) to address spills of hazardous chemicals that are polluting our…
Expert BlogNRDC
While the EPA continues to drag its feet, extreme storms and flooding are putting the health of our most vulnerable communities at risk.