The Evivironmental Protection Agentcy is now The Employer Portection Agency!: Two Examples: World Tade Center Implosian and Norfolk Southern Eat Palestine Derailment

Ohio EPA: No Contaminants Found in East Palestine Municipal Water System After Derailment 

The Above Statement is false and a deliberate understatement to Protect Norfolk Southern !: Below is a quote from Erin Brockovich, Trial Attorney Mikal Watts, And Representatives From Ohio Law Firm Bevan & Associates Speak At East Palestine Justice Town Hall Meeting:

Norfolk Southern Burned The Chemical Contents Of The Derailed Cars, Polluting The Community. Two Derailed Train Cars Held Vinyl Chloride And Butyl Acrylate, Two Substances Used In Industrial Production And Known To Cause Harm To Human And Animal Life. These Chemicals Have Seeped Into The Ground And Leached Into The Air, Polluting The Critical Resources Of East Palestine And Potentially Causing Long-Lasting Physical Harm To Its Residents And Their Property. As We Now Know, The EPA Estimates That More Than 43,000 Fish Have Died As A Direct Result Of The Crash, And We Continue To Receive Reports Of Residents Experiencing A Range Of Symptoms.     “You Want To Be Heard, But You’re Going To Be Told It’s Safe, You’re Going To Be Told Not To Worry,” Brockovich Said. “That’s Just Rubbish Because You’re Going To Worry. Communities Want To Be Seen And Heard. Don’t Expect Somebody To Give You The Answers. Unfortunately, This Is Not A Quick Fix. This Is Going To Be A Long Game. We Want You To Get Information That You Can Take Home So That You’re Better Informed.”     The Consequences Of This Crash Will Require A Long-Term Remediation Plan For The Town And Continuous, Attentive, And Transparent Testing Of The Town’s Waterways, Air, And Soil. Norfolk Southern Owes The Residents Of East Palestine Financial Support To Recover, Rebuild, And Ensure The Safety Of Their Community.      The Corporate Wrongdoing, Negligence, And Greed Involved In This Incident Require Justice For The People Of East Palestine. Attorneys At Watts Guerra And Bevan And Associates LPA Are Leading A Lawsuit To Hold Norfolk Southern Accountable For Its Negligence And Get Families The Compensation They Deserve.      “The Company Chooses To Ship The Most Deadly, The Most Toxic, The Most Dangerous Chemicals Ever Made By Man In Railcars Right Through Populated Cities.      If You Are Going To Ship These Kinds Of Chemicals Through Populated Areas Or Small Towns Like This, You Damn Sure Have An Obligation To Make Sure You Don’t Jump The Tracks,” Said Mikal Watts On Friday Night.     Watts Guerra Is The Leading Mass Tort Law Firm In The United States. Led By Celebrated Lawyers Mikal Watts And Francisco Guerra, The Firm Has Secured Billions Of Dollars In Awards To Victims Of Misdeeds Of Utility Companies In California, Automobile Manufacturer Malfeasance, And Pharmaceutical Company Lies. Watts Guerra Is Committed To Not Only Winning Compensation For The Residents Of East Palestine But Also Deeply Committed To Preventing Future Crises Like This.     East Palestine Justice Is A Team Of Attorneys, Environmental Activists, And Scientific And Medical Experts Representing Community Members Affected By Norfolk Southern’s Negligence. 

 Norfolk Southern East Palestine Derailment: Norfolk Southern, the empoyer, is now doing the hazardous material testing!

Initial soil testing already revealed dioxin levels hundreds of times above the threshold that Environmental Protection Agency scientists have found poses a cancer risk, but that sampling was limited in scope.   Regulators have said further testing being conducted by the Norfolk Southern-funded contractor Arcadis US will provide a broader picture than the initial samples. But, among other problems, the plan relies on what experts characterized as an “unconventional” process to check for dioxins, and the results are “unlikely to give a complete picture”, of contamination in East Palestine, said Stephen Lester, a toxicologist with the Center for Health, Environment and Justice. — Plan to Test gor Dioxins Near Ohio Train Derailment Site ds Flawed, Experts Say

 Norfolk Southern East Palestine Derailment: Norfolk Southern, the empoyer, is now doing the hazardous material testing!:

Initial soil testing already revealed dioxin levels hundreds of times above the threshold that Environmental Protection Agency scientists have found poses a cancer risk, but that sampling was limited in scope.   Regulators have said further testing being conducted by the Norfolk Southern-funded contractor Arcadis US will provide a broader picture than the initial samples. But, among other problems, the plan relies on what experts characterized as an “unconventional” process to check for dioxins, and the results are “unlikely to give a complete picture”, of contamination in East Palestine, said Stephen Lester, a toxicologist with the Center for Health, Environment and Justice. — Plan to Test gor Dioxins Near Ohio Train Derailment Site ds Flawed, Experts Say

World Trade Center Implosian: The Hazardous Waste Operations and Emergency Response Standard (HAZWOPER) cleanup regulations were suspended for the cleanup of the World Trade Center!

These towers were built in the late 1970s and asbestos was one of many carcinogenic materials that were used in their construction. Everyone, familiar with construction and the carcinogens that are contained in high rise structures, immediately knew that there was a grave risk for all who were downwind from the dust cloud which was formed from the burning and crumbling of the building.  Despite the obvious, Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) Administrator Christie Whitman said a week after the attacks: “I am glad to reassure the people of New York … that their air is safe to breathe and their water is safe to drink.”       Even Though Cate Jenkins, PhD, a 22-year specialist with the EPA’s Hazardous Waste Identification Division and the author of a 432-page memo to the EPA’s Inspector General as background documentation for the recently released IG report.On January 11, 2002, a memorandum was sent by Cate Jenkins, Ph.D., the head EPA hazardous waste investigator in lower Manhattan after 9/11. This memorandum compared the asbestos levels in the Montana, Libby Hazardous Waste Superfund Site* to the levels she found in Lower Manhattan.   (In Libby, Montana almost 30% of the Libby residents were hurt by asbestos.)  … In January, 2002, I attended a panel discussion “reporting back” about the hazardous conditions from the implosion of the World Trade Center. This meeting was sponsored by Cal-OSHA, “Worksafe!,” and other safety organizations. The reporters explained that The Hazardous Waste Operations and Emergency Response Standard (HAZWOPER) cleanup regulations were suspended for the cleanup of the World Trade Center “dustpile.”      And that OSHA was prevented from enforcing work safety regulations and relegated to merely an advisory status. (Employers thus faced no penalties for putting workers at risk.)If it truly was safe why  did  Hazardous Waste Operations and Emergency Response Standard (HAZWOPER) cleanup regulations?9-11 World Trade Center Dust Cloud: How Many Will Die?!   

*What is Superfund?

  • The Comprehensive Environmental Response, Compensation, and Liability Act (CERCLA) of 1980, or Superfund, is designed to grant authority to the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA), states and Native American tribes to manage and clean up the nation’s most dangerous waste sites.
  • Superfund gives the EPA the responsibility to address acute local and national environmental emergencies that threaten public health and the environment.
  • Most importantly, Superfund creates a system where polluters have to pay for the messes they create. The EPA identifies the potentially responsible parties (PRPs) that created hazardous sites and requires them to fund and/or manage the cleanups.

What is the history of Superfund?

  • CERCLA came into existence after a State of Emergency was declared at Love Canal, New York in 1978. The act includes a retroactive liability provision that allows the EPA to hold past parties that created dangerous waste sites accountable for clean-up. Around 70 percent of Superfund cleanups have been paid by responsible parties.

What is the Polluters Pay fee and why isn’t it being collected?

  • The Polluters Pay fee is one of the ways Superfund ensures that people responsible for pollution fund its clean up. The EPA would collect a fee from the petroleum and chemical industries, which was used to fund cleanups for pollution sites that had no clearly identifiable responsible party or were polluted by bankrupt parties.
  • The fee also served as a motivation to switch to less hazardous production methods.
  •  The tax has not been collected since 1995, however, and by 2004 there was no longer any money in the Superfund. Now, EPA is forced to fund Superfund through taxpayer money— taxpayers are paying to clean up pollution, rather than the polluters themselves.