Daily Archives: August 19, 2020

The EPA and their contractors declare no dangerous levels of plutonium were found in groundwater samples at the IEL despite “a great deal of uncertainty,” but then eyewitnesses to late night military dumping at the landfill come forward leading to a secret probe from the Department of Justice.

Questionable methodology enables the EPA to avoid observing levels of radioactivity that it prefers not to have to deal with at the IEL – despite flaws pointed out by the agency’s own Science Advisory Board – and Tetra Tech gets rehired despite numerous mistakes spotlighted by the Project on Government Oversight.

What happened at the Industrial Excess Landfill (IEL) in Ohio wasn’t unique. The handling of the controversial Superfund site in the ‘90s became a turning point in the EPA’s de-evolution from theoretical environmental protector to enabler of polluters, aka “regulatory capture.” Fatally flawed cleanups due to shoddy field work and substandard testing became cover-ups that could happen all over the country – such as at Hunters Point in San Francisco – while citizens were left to live with the toxic consequences.

Tetra Tech was part of a team of contractors hired by the EPA to clean up a toxic radioactive dump in Ohio but evidence suggests EPA implemented a cover-up instead of a cleanup, creating a playbook for institutionalizing corrupted science across the nation. When Tetra Tech got busted years later for fraud at another radioactive site, in San Francisco, the EPA’s failure to demand best scientific practices was exposed again with dire ramifications for public health.

CANCELLED Due to Bad Air: PROTEST TUESDAY, SEPTEMBER 1, 11 AM If research suggests a direct link between air pollution and death from COVID-19, shouldn’t this league of kneeholders be held accountable for failing to address long-term environmental injustice in Bayview Hunters Point?

Corporate double-talk in the mainstream media is showing up as expected in this 2020 election year making it challenging, as usual, to decipher what a proposed law really means to accomplish. But we can usually tell if it is in the interest of blue collar Black people by who is backing it.

Most Californians are aware of the state’s dangerous wildfire season and the heroic bravery of CAL FIRE staff. Many more are unaware that these fires would cease to be contained and countless lives might be lost without the help of California’s incarcerated firefighters, who earn at most $5.12 a day. A new program promises real jobs with full pay when they’re released.