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Cape Fear Riverkeeper Kemp Burdette collects water samples in the Cape Fear River near the Smithfield slaughter house in Tar Heel, N.C. (Justin Cook for Earthjustice)
Press Release March 26, 2024

Community, Environmental, and Animal Welfare Organizations Press EPA to Strengthen Water Pollution Control Standards for Slaughterhouses and Animal Rendering Facilities

Stronger standards would prevent hundreds of millions of pounds of pollution from reaching rivers and streams, helping to protect more than 22 million people

document March 26, 2024

EPA Comments: Slaughterhouse Clean Water Act Effluent Limitations Guidelines and Standards for MPP Point Source Category

Inadequately controlled water pollution from slaughterhouses and rendering facilities can make water unsafe for drinking, unfit for outdoor recreation, and uninhabitable for aquatic life, posing serious risks to human health and the environment, especially in vulnerable and under-resourced communities. After more than two decades, EPA finally has begun the process of strengthening water pollution control standards for these facilities, and the Agency now proposes to adopt the weakest of three regulatory options. EPA’s preferred option is inconsistent with the CWA and other federal laws.

In the News: Houston Landing March 25, 2024

EPA gives ‘minor’ polluters a free pass, creating a regulatory void in Channelview

James Pew, Attorney, Washington, D.C., Office: “Just getting the EPA to use the authority it has had all along would yield huge benefits.”

In the News: Grist March 22, 2024

EPA is regulating sterilizers, but not the warehouses that store sterilized products

Marvin Brown, Attorney, Washington, D.C., Office: “Up until eight years ago, a lot of people had no idea that the sterilizer facility, which looks like your regular office park facility, was poisoning them. Now we have this additional issue of these warehouses that are continuing to poison people, and most people have no idea that…

The Shell Norco Manufacturing Complex, an oil refinery, is located in Norco, La., 10 miles upriver from New Orleans. (Gerald Herbert / AP)
Press Release March 21, 2024

EPA Closes Emissions Loopholes Abused by Refineries and Chemical Plants

The rule removes loopholes companies used to avoid reporting harmful toxic emissions during force majeure events

The Cheswick Generating Station in 2010. Prior to the Mercury and Air Toxics Standards, oil-burning and coal-burning power plants largely avoided restrictions on emissions of hazardous air pollution. (Chris Jordan-Bloch / Earthjustice)
feature March 20, 2024

Historic Environmental Protections are Up Against the Deadline

The Biden administration must get rulemakings over the finish line this spring to solidify climate and health protections ahead of political uncertainty.

Steel mills in East Chicago, Indiana, on the shore of Lake Michigan. (Matthew Kaplan / Alamy Stock Photo)
Press Release: Victory March 18, 2024

Final Steel Mill Rule Will Prevent 64 Tons of Hazardous Air Emissions Annually

Despite significant industry pushback, EPA takes important step to regulate steel production, one of the worst sources of toxic heavy metal air pollution

Clean Air Laredo Coalition and Rio Grande International Study Center rally in front of Midwest Sterilizer facility in Laredo, TX. The facility ranks among the most polluting facilities in the nation of ethylene oxide emissions. (RGISC)
Press Release March 14, 2024

EPA Finalizes Rule on Ethylene Oxide Sterilizer Facilities’ Emissions

Nearly 14 million people in the US live near facilities that emit one of the most toxic air pollutants regulated by the agency

Clean Air Laredo Coalition and Rio Grande International Study Center rally in front of Midwest Sterilizer facility in Laredo, TX. The facility ranks among the most polluting facilities in the nation of ethylene oxide emissions. (RGISC)
Update March 14, 2024

Industry Is Trying to Weaken Regulations on Cancer-Causing Emissions

The EPA has finalized stronger rules on the cancer-causing emission ethylene oxide.

A flare burns in a California oil field.
(Chris Jordan-Bloch / Earthjustice)
Press Release March 13, 2024

Health, Environmental, Community Groups Move to Defend EPA Oil and Gas Methane Standards in Court

EPA’s oil and gas methane standards are firmly rooted in science and the law

Flaring at a refinery located next to homes in Wilmington, CA. (Jesse Marquez)
Press Release: Victory March 4, 2024

Federal Court Confirms EPA’s Authority to End Loopholes Companies Use to Pollute Air with Impunity

The exemptions prevent communities from holding air polluters accountable for toxic emissions

Residents observe the fire consuming the TPC Group plant on Wednesday, Nov. 27, 2019, in Port Neches, Texas. Two massive explosions 13 hours apart tore through the chemical plant and one left several workers injured. (Marie D. De Jesús / Houston Chronicle via AP)
Press Release: Victory March 1, 2024

EPA Strengthens Chemical Disaster Safeguards

Nearly 180 million people live in the worst-case scenario zones for a chemical disaster

In the News: Grist February 29, 2024

An invisible chemical is poisoning thousands of unsuspecting warehouse workers

Marvin Brown, Attorney, Washington, D.C., Office: “The method of sterilization has been to over sterilize. The result for communities is that they are exposed to higher amounts of ethylene oxide, because more ethylene oxide is being used than necessary.”

The John Amos Power Plant, a coal utility company located on the Kanawha River in West Virginia. (Joe Sohm / Getty Images)
Press Release February 29, 2024

Earthjustice Encouraged by EPA’s Commitment to Protect Communities From Power Plant Pollution

EPA to take a comprehensive approach to power plant rulemaking to better safeguard communities from pollution

After years of inaction by the federal government, the Environmental Protection Agency has proposed long-overdue limits on six PFAS in drinking water. (Getty Images)
feature February 29, 2024

Inside EPA’s Roadmap on Regulating PFAS Chemicals

Toxic “forever chemicals” remain laxly regulated.

In the News: The New York Times February 29, 2024

E.P.A. to Exempt Existing Gas Plants From Tough New Rules, for Now.

Abigail Dillen, President, Earthjustice: “There’s no good way to regulate fossil gas plants without regulating all of them.”

A haze of smog covers the Port of Houston. (James Dillard)
case February 28, 2024

The EPA’s Good Neighbor Plan: Defending Public Health in the Supreme Court

The future of the Good Neighbor Plan hangs in the balance, with implications for public health and economic prosperity nationwide.

Lori Phillips grew up in Franklinville, New York where her family lived on a farm, growing corn and raising livestock. During the summer, the windows of her house would be open while her father sprayed a herbicide on the crops. Years later, Lori developed Parkinson’s disease. (Tina Russell for Earthjustice)
Article February 27, 2024

This Weed Killer Is Linked to Parkinson’s. Why Isn’t It Banned Yet?

Paraquat damages farmworkers’ respiratory system, their kidneys, and their eyes. Help us urge the EPA to ban it.