"Just over a mile from where Patricia Flores has lived for almost 20 years, a battery smelter plant spewed toxic elements into the environment for nearly a century."
A coming lithium rush in Arkansas drew the notice of journalist Katie Myers, who used a grant from the Fund for Environmental Journalism to explore whether extraction activities near once-booming energy communities could avoid the economic and environmental impacts of another boom-and-bust cycle for a largely Black region with histories of land dispossession, plantation slavery and Jim Crow segregation. Lessons learned in the latest FEJ StoryLog.
"Mexican environmental regulators say they have discovered 30,000 tons of improperly stored material with “hazardous characteristics” in the yard of a Mexican plant that is recycling toxic waste shipped from the US."
"In the aftermath of the devastating wildfires that tore through Los Angeles last month, undocumented day laborers will likely make up a significant portion of the workforce tasked with clearing debris and rebuilding homes. As they navigate the environmental hazards of this work, they’re also facing the Trump administration’s escalating crackdown on immigrants."
"The head of the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency is seeking to end contracts agreed by the previous administration to distribute $20 billion in grants to fund clean energy and transportation projects in disadvantaged communities, he said on Thursday."
"On February 5th, EPA removed from its website the environmental justice mapping and screening tool, EJScreen, as well as several related web pages. ... Public Environmental Data Partners (PEDP) released a reconstruction of Version 2.3 of EPA’s EJScreen."
"Removing lead paint and pipes. Cleaning up contaminated land. Monitoring pollution. Making houses more energy efficient. Installing solar panels in low-income neighborhoods. Those are some of the projects across the country that were cut off from federal funding when the Trump administration paused spending approved earlier by Congress."
"A renewed and expanded effort from chemical giant Bayer to shield itself from lawsuits that claim its popular weedkiller Roundup causes cancer brought dozens of protesters to the Iowa Capitol building Monday begging lawmakers to reject it."
"As aging private wells fall into disrepair, residents are left traveling miles to access or buy clean drinking water. Public officials say it’s a humanitarian crisis but argue there’s little they can do."
"President Donald Trump wants to get environmental justice out of the federal government. In state capitals, those ideas are more firmly entrenched than ever."
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