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In the News: The New York Times October 24, 2024

E.P.A. Toughens Requirements to Remove Lead Paint Dust Around Children

Patrice Simms, VP of Litigation, Earthjustice: “This long-overdue action is a game changer in the fight against lead exposure, a silent threat that endangers lives at even the smallest trace.”

Press Release: Victory October 24, 2024

Cualquier Cantidad de Polvo con Plomo en Hogares, Escuelas y Guarderías es Peligrosa, Anunció EPA

La norma final de la agencia establece requisitos más estrictos para identificar y limpiar la pintura con plomo

A bungalow classroom door at Walter Reed Middle School in North Hollywood has a red tape sign indicating a presence of lead in the paint. As a result, this room and others were sealed off until they can be fixed.  (Boris Yaro / Los Angeles Times via Getty Images)
Press Release: Victory October 24, 2024

EPA Announces Any Lead Dust in Homes, Schools, and Daycares is Hazardous

Agency’s final rule places stronger requirements for identifying and cleaning up lead paint

Lead-based paint disintegrates over time and contaminates dust throughout homes or schools; lead in soil around these buildings also leads to children’s exposure. (M.R. / CC BY-ND 2.0)
Update October 24, 2024

EPA Adopts New Rule That Will Help Protect Kids from Lead Dust

After a decades-long battle, the EPA has adopted a rule that would deem any amount of lead dust found in schools, daycares, and homes to be a “lead hazard.”

Children in Flint, Michigan, have been poisoned by lead in the city's tap water.
(Ceyhun (Jay) Isik/CC BY-NC-ND 2.0)
case October 15, 2024

Lead and Copper Rule: Protecting Communities from Lead in Drinking Water

The Lead and Copper Rule Improvements rule requires the proactive replacement of most lead service lines nationwide within the next 10 years, improves sampling methods to more accurately measure lead levels, and will force more water systems to take immediate action to address lead contamination.

Workmen prepare to replace old water pipes with new copper pipes in Newark, New Jersey in 2021. The city replaced nearly all of its 23,000 lead service lines with new copper pipes. (Seth Wenig / AP)
Article October 9, 2024

Toxic Lead Is Still Contaminating Our Drinking Water, But Change Is Coming

After years of advocacy by Earthjustice and our partners, a newly updated EPA rule requires almost all lead pipes in the U.S. to be replaced within a decade.

(Peter Cade / Getty Images)
Press Release: Victory October 8, 2024

EPA Revela Histórica Norma para Eliminar el Plomo del Agua Potable

Las Mejoras en el Plomo y Cobre exigen que las líneas de servicio se reemplacen por completo en un plazo de 10 años

A child fills a drinking glass with water from the faucet. (Cavan Images)
Press Release: Victory October 8, 2024

Updated EPA Rule Requires Replacement of Almost All Lead Service Lines in 10 Years

Lead and Copper Rule improvements are a critical tool for safeguarding our drinking water

Louie Wagner Jr. casts for ooligan on the Unuk River, as his family has for generations. (Sonia Luokkala / SEITC)
Article September 18, 2024

Rampant Gold Mining in British Columbia Threatens Salmon and Indigenous Rights

Toxic gold mining along rivers crossing the British Columbia-Alaska border threatens critical ecosystems and the sovereign rights of Alaska Native communities.

The EES Coke Battery facility on Zug Island in River Rouge, Michigan. The plant is owned by DTE Vantage, a subsidiary of DTE Energy. The EES Coke facility releases thousands of tons of sulfur dioxide in the overburdened River Rouge community and near the state’s most polluted zip code, 48217. (Ted Auch / FracTracker Alliance)
Press Release September 4, 2024

Community Groups Challenge EPA’s Weak Coke Ovens Rule in Court

The agency’s final coke ovens rule does not reduce enough toxic air pollution to protect nearby communities

A fireball rises above the 36th Explosive Ordnance Disposal Tarague range seconds after the detonation of an M117 bomb, as a part of the flight's training, on Andersen Air Force Base, Guam. (A1C Joshua P. Strang / USAF)
Press Release August 20, 2024

U.S. EPA and Guam EPA Express Grave Concerns Over Open Detonation at Andersen AFB, Find Permit Renewal Application Deficient

Open detonation releases toxic chemicals into environment and threatens human health

In the News: Public Health Watch July 29, 2024

Long-Delayed Permit for LA-Area Lead Smelter Will Tighten Enforcement, Regulators Say. Plant Neighbors Aren’t So Sure.

Angela Johnson Meszaros, Managing Attorney, Community Partnerships Program: “We’ve been working with them eight years, and the community learns about it by reading the notice in the newspaper. Really? People are literally breathing hazardous materials and they are in their homes and yards and schools and bodies. And they just deserve better.”

Lead weights on the rim of a car wheel, used for balance. (Ratchat / Getty Images)
Article July 23, 2024

Lead Wheel Weights Are the Deadly Car Accessory We Don’t Need or Want

Earthjustice sued the EPA for failing to ban lead wheel weights, small metal bars that help balance tires but shed toxic lead into our air, water, and soil.

Aerial view of the smelting complex in the city of La Oroya, Peru in 2022. La Oroya is one of the most polluted localities on the planet. (Ernesto Benavides / AFP via Getty Images)
From the Experts: Victory June 20, 2024

La Oroya vs. Perú: Precedente Histórico Sobre Derechos Humanos y el Medio Ambiente

La Corte Interamericana de Derechos Humanos estableció un precedente importante para la fiscalización de la contaminación industrial por parte de los Estados.

Aerial view of the smelting complex in the city of La Oroya, Peru in 2022. La Oroya is one of the most polluted localities on the planet. (Ernesto Benavides / AFP via Getty Images)
From the Experts: Victory June 20, 2024

La Oroya v. Peru: Historic Precedent on Human Rights and the Environment

The Inter-American Court of Human Rights set an important precedent for state oversight of industrial pollution.

Lead poisoning prevention advocates rally outside City Hall to protest a new City Council bill that shifts financial responsibility of replacing lead water service lines from the City to the property owner. (Nydia Gutiérrez / Earthjustice)
Press Release June 18, 2024

NYC Proposes Bill to Shift Cost of Lead Pipe Replacement to Property Owners

Advocates for responsible lead pipe replacement speak out against “Rotten” Bill

A Circle Line ferry sails past the Williamsburg Bridge as the Manhattan skyline is shrouded in smoke from Canada wildfires on June 6, 2023 in New York City. New York City is bathed in a blanket of unhealthy air as smoke from Canadian wildfires seeps across much of the eastern U.S. and Great Lakes areas. (NDZ/STAR MAX/IPx via AP)
Press Release June 11, 2024

Earthjustice Statement: New York State Legislative Session Ends, Falling Short on Climate, Energy Affordability, and Health

Governor blows up congestion pricing; Assembly fails to pass NY HEAT, Packaging Reduction, and more

In the News: Grist April 22, 2024

California communities are fighting the last battery recycling plant in the West — and its toxic legacy

Angela Johnson Meszaros, Managing Attorney, Community Partnerships Program: “What they’ve really been denying the community is the ability to really call the question, should this facility, based on its past operation, receive a renewal of its hazardous waste permit? The community’s position is no. And I think that they have the receipts for why the…