Chemicals

"Long before this month’s fiery derailment, railroad industry leaders battled regulations meant to boost freight train safety, including plans to bolster some of the very same tank cars that ruptured and released chemicals in eastern Ohio."

"The Environmental Protection Agency will take control of the response to the Ohio train derailment and order rail company Norfolk Southern to clean up the contamination, the agency said Tuesday, the Biden administration’s strongest response yet to the disaster."

"Communities alongside rail lines had two more close calls this week as freight trains carrying hazardous materials derailed in Houston and Detroit."

"California's largest and most expensive environmental cleanup has failed to properly remove lead pollution from some homes and neighborhoods near a notorious battery recycler in southeast Los Angeles County, leaving residents at continued risk, a Los Angeles Times investigation shows."

"Drinking water systems are preparing for the possibility that the EPA will try to codify its 2022 health advisories suggesting no amount of PFAS substances are safe, water attorneys say."

"The Biden administration on Friday restored the legal foundation of an Obama-era regulation governing mercury, a pollutant from power plants that can damage brain development in babies and cause heart disease in adults."

"The Trump administration abandoned rail safety rules that were pursued during the Obama era. The Biden administration is trying to revive some of them."

"The Biden administration is proposing to restore regulations aiming to protect farmworkers from pesticides that had been rolled back under the Trump administration."

"A visit to East Palestine from the head of the E.P.A. and a White House pledge to lend more support were met with skepticism in the community."