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13-04-2023, 12:31 PM
By JOHN FLESHER
April 11, 2023
When word surfaced that soils and liquids laced with chemicals from the East Palestine, Ohio, train derailment were being sent to southeastern Michigan for storage, local residents and politicians were livid.
......
So loud was the outcry that the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency halted shipments from the crash site in the town of 5,000 to a hazardous waste landfill and underground deep-injection wells in suburban Detroit.
Resistance was fierce elsewhere, too, from a raucous town hall meeting in Roachdale, Indiana, to Oklahoma Gov. Kevin Stitt barring the waste from a landfill there.
......
Baltimore Mayor Brandon Scott scuttled a company’s plan to treat East Palestine liquids and dispose of them in the city wastewater system.
The controversy illuminates an uncomfortable truth: Hazardous wastes are seemingly everywhere, from sprawling factories to household garages. They’re byproducts of industrial processes and goods consumers value. And when people want to get rid of waste, it has to go somewhere.
......
But it’s not unreasonable for communities to be concerned about waste from disasters like the East Palestine crash, said Eric Schaeffer, executive director of the Environmental Integrity Project.
Regulators could help by quickly describing how facilities will store, treat and dispose of the waste and posting data from air and groundwater monitoring online, said the former EPA official.
......
While EPA and Norfolk Southern have acted legally in shipping East Palestine waste to other states, the episode should prompt discussion about its fairness — especially when the facilities are in marginalized communities
......
In Michigan, two-thirds of residents within three miles (4.8 kilometers) of commercial hazardous waste facilities are people of color although they make up 25% of the state’s population
......
The issue also raises questions about “how we might minimize the toxic materials that go into things we use in everyday life,” said McDiarmid of the Michigan environment agency. “Creating less hazardous waste is a better answer than how we dispose of it.”
https://apnews.com/article/east-palestin...3c8e6931f8
April 11, 2023
When word surfaced that soils and liquids laced with chemicals from the East Palestine, Ohio, train derailment were being sent to southeastern Michigan for storage, local residents and politicians were livid.
......
So loud was the outcry that the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency halted shipments from the crash site in the town of 5,000 to a hazardous waste landfill and underground deep-injection wells in suburban Detroit.
Resistance was fierce elsewhere, too, from a raucous town hall meeting in Roachdale, Indiana, to Oklahoma Gov. Kevin Stitt barring the waste from a landfill there.
......
Baltimore Mayor Brandon Scott scuttled a company’s plan to treat East Palestine liquids and dispose of them in the city wastewater system.
The controversy illuminates an uncomfortable truth: Hazardous wastes are seemingly everywhere, from sprawling factories to household garages. They’re byproducts of industrial processes and goods consumers value. And when people want to get rid of waste, it has to go somewhere.
......
But it’s not unreasonable for communities to be concerned about waste from disasters like the East Palestine crash, said Eric Schaeffer, executive director of the Environmental Integrity Project.
Regulators could help by quickly describing how facilities will store, treat and dispose of the waste and posting data from air and groundwater monitoring online, said the former EPA official.
......
While EPA and Norfolk Southern have acted legally in shipping East Palestine waste to other states, the episode should prompt discussion about its fairness — especially when the facilities are in marginalized communities
......
In Michigan, two-thirds of residents within three miles (4.8 kilometers) of commercial hazardous waste facilities are people of color although they make up 25% of the state’s population
......
The issue also raises questions about “how we might minimize the toxic materials that go into things we use in everyday life,” said McDiarmid of the Michigan environment agency. “Creating less hazardous waste is a better answer than how we dispose of it.”
https://apnews.com/article/east-palestin...3c8e6931f8
