#SuperFund

[saywhat-politics]

Law Holds Fossil Fuel Companies Responsible for Impact of Pollution on New York Communities

Bill Signed to Broaden State Ban on Hydraulic Fracturing

Actions are Latest Move to Strengthen State’s Climate Actions and Environmental Protection Laws to Prevent Harmful Impacts to New Yorkers

Governor Kathy Hochul today signed landmark legislation to bolster New York’s efforts to protect and restore the environment by requiring large fossil fuel companies to pay for critical projects that protect New Yorkers. Legislation S.2129-B/A.3351-B creates a ‘Climate Superfund’ to support New York-based projects that bolster New York’s resiliency to dangerous climate impacts like flooding and extreme heat.

“With nearly every record rainfall, heatwave, and coastal storm, New Yorkers are increasingly burdened with billions of dollars in health, safety, and environmental consequences due to polluters that have historically harmed our environment,” Governor Hochul said. “Establishing the Climate Superfund is the latest example of my administration taking action to hold polluters responsible for the damage done to our environment and requiring major investments in infrastructure and other projects critical to protecting our communities and economy.”

This landmark legislation shifts the cost of climate adaptation from everyday New Yorkers to the fossil fuel companies most responsible for the pollution. By creating a Climate Change Adaptation Cost Recovery Program, this law ensures that these companies contribute to the funding of critical infrastructure investments, such as coastal protection and flood mitigation systems, to enhance the climate resilience of communities across the state.

[0zzysaurus]

Who wants to go on a cross country trip with me here are all the places we are visiting

[rockhyrax]

Emulsion geographies.

[randomwikiarticles]

Love Canal is a neighborhood in Niagara Falls, New York, United States, infamous as the location of a 0.28 km2 (0.11 sq mi) landfill that became the site of an environmental disaster in the 1970s. Decades of dumping toxic chemicals killed residents and harmed the health of hundreds, often profoundly.[1] The area was cleaned up over the course of 21 years in a Superfund operation.

In 1890, Love Canal was created as a model planned community, but was only partially developed. In the 1920s, the canal became a dump site for municipal refuse for the city of Niagara Falls. During the 1940s, the canal was purchased by Hooker Chemical Company, which used the site to dump 19,800 t (19,500 long tons; 21,800 short tons) of chemical byproducts from the manufacturing of dyes, perfumes, and solvents for rubber and synthetic resins.

Love Canal was sold to the local school district in 1953, after the threat of eminent domain. Over the next three decades, it attracted national attention for the public health problems originating from the former dumping of toxic waste on the grounds. This event displaced numerous families, leaving them with longstanding health issues and symptoms of high white blood cell counts and leukemia. Subsequently, the federal government passed the Superfund law. The resulting Superfund cleanup operation demolished the neighborhood, ending in 2004.

[notenderlaith]

Just found out that the town I lived in for years while experiencing major physical symptoms the entire time, that was always intensified when I was exposed to the water is actually super fucking polluted.

You mean to tell me that I'm disabled because of this.

What the actual fuck.

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[loudlylovingreview]

Derrick Z. Jackson: After Decades of Disinformation, the US Finally Begins Regulating PFAS Chemicals

Earlier this month, the Environmental Protection Agency announced it would regulate two forms of PFAS contamination under Superfund laws reserved for “the nation’s worst hazardous waste sites.” EPA Administrator Michael Regan said the action will ensure that “polluters pay for the costs to clean up pollution threatening the health of communities.” That was an encore to the Food and Drug…

[fenrislorsrai]

Every professional in the tags that said you're actually working with this data to get communities money to fix their environmental problems, I am kissing you, respectfully.

I also saw some folks in the comments confused about why their area qualified. @angreyonabus above really had a good time chewing on the stats. Click the tracts! you'll get drop downs on the side that tell you details about it.

A link I wish they'd included on the map page but didn't is the website to look up Superfund sites. The Priorities map includes .... priorities, so doesn't have all sites. The other links for lookups on the page will let you see ones that are lower priority, currently in process of being assessed, and even dig into the records for ones that have been cleaned up.

The records can get really detailed about what exactly is wrong, how severe it is, immediate threats, and how long it will take to clean up. Many of these sites you wouldn't immediately recognize as a Superfund sites if you live nearby because they're often abandoned and have minimal signage indicating "oh, that's full of toxic chemicals and no one should live there." it just an abandoned spot that never seems to get built on...

Justice 40

Joe Biden is boring and often bad at tooting his own horn, but by god, he is good at process.

Justice 40 is simple but powerful application of that. its a shift in how the executive branch works. 40% of money from a bunch of existing programs should go to census tracts that are overburdened with pollution, at higher risk for climate change, and have been historically underserved.

The shorthand here is basically "communities that don't have enough internal resources to deal with long term problems". So yes, communities that had been redlined for decades, ones that have Superfund sites, ones that have high rates of asthma from air pollution.

and this is by census tract. Not city. census tract. So parts of New York City qualify... but other parts don't. And the city HAS to use the money in the targeted part. it doesn't go into the communal pool. it's for THAT tract specifically.

Also all land federally recognized as belonging to a Native American tribe and all Alaskan Native Villages qualify, specifically.

And again, this is for existing programs that are already running and have existing staff and budgets. They're supposed to prioritize grants and projects for those areas specifically. And that's everything from Department of Agriculture, to FEMA, to Labor, to Environmental Protection.

Does it instantly get rid of all the baked in racism from decades past? No, not even close. But it puts in a countermeasure that has a concrete and measurable goal to aim for rather than a nebulous "suck less." even if the administration changes, many of those changes will stick.

And as things improve, some tracts may come off the list! Some may go on that weren't there before!

You can see a map here. Blue highlighted tracts are "disadvantaged" so qualify for that extra assistance! Check and see if you live in one or part of your town does. Because if you've been hearing constantly "we can't afford to fix X problem..." and you're in that tract.... there's money available. For you. Build that sidewalk, fix those lead pipes, get that brush truck your volunteer fire department has been asking for.

And tell your local officials that! "did you look at Justice 40 for funding". And even if they're doing their best, particularly people in little towns.... being a government official isn't their full time job. They may have missed it. Just asking them about the program may suddenly open a world of possibilities.

[sybaritick]

"fun" fact: the trichloroethylene in my blog title is in reference to it being one of the industrial pollutants at the superfund sites nearest my hometown (while trichloroethylene is certainly not the biggest or most common pollutant, it has a fun name, so i've chosen that one.) there is also my microfiction/flash fiction about it in this post :) i have written more about new jersey's superfund sites including paintings, songs, etc. it's been a focus of my art for a long time. i will end with my homemade/handwritten map of all the current superfund sites in NJ which i have on the back of a tshirt.

[anonuid]

Gowanus Canal, 2023-02-26 . . . . #gowanus #brooklyn #scrapmetal #fueloil #365project #photojournal #dailypic#streetphotography #streetshot #ig_street #justgoshoot #nycphotography #nyclife #newyork_ig #what_i_saw_in_nyc #googlepixel #teampixel #urbanphotography #superfund (at Smith–Ninth Streets) https://www.instagram.com/p/CpJ0JGfOQ81/?igshid=NGJjMDIxMWI=

[opens-up-4-nobody]

Ok. I work on a floor with 2 bunsen burners and a flamible/combustible liquids cabnet. Last week, I realized I didn't know where the fire extinguisher was (despite frequently using an open flame). Turns out it is out the door and down the hall. About as far from the fire hazards as possible. And I can't stop thinking abt it. Like. That feels fucking crazy right? I ask bc I seem to be the only person who cares. I told my advisor that I think we should have more fire extinguishers and he looked at me blank faced (despite the fact that he had to actively wander around the whole floor bc he also didn't kno where it was). And like yeah, in 20 years they haven't had a fire and maybe they never will but this feels like a fucking common sense preventative measure? It's just tempting fate. The hubris of not putting a fire extinguisher next to a bunsen burner is driving me crazy?? It's not even in the same god damn room! You would have to run out the room, sprint down the hall, open the case, and sprint back to use it! Why am I the only one who cares???

[rockhyrax]

Moonachie of the Meadows, Ventron/Velsicol vicinity.

[whattimeisitmisterwolf]

formulanone

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[rjzimmerman]

Excerpt from this New York Times story:

Vermont and New York recently became the first states to create “Climate Superfund” laws, which will require energy companies to help pay for the costs of dealing with extreme weather and climate change.

As wildfires devastate the Los Angeles area, some are asking if California could become the third.

“Taxpayers are shouldering 100 percent of the burden of climate-fueled disasters,” said Kassie Siegel, director of the Climate Law Institute at the Center for Biological Diversity, adding that this kind of legislation would “take some of the burden off Californians.”

But whether these new laws can survive what are expected to be fierce legal challenges from the oil industry and its allies is an open question. The first salvo was filed last month in Vermont federal court by the U.S. Chamber of Commerce and the American Petroleum Institute. The suit called on the court to block Vermont’s law, arguing that it was unconstitutional and would impose “irrational and arbitrary punishment” based on flawed calculations.

“Vermont is not home to any of the energy producers it hopes to regulate,” the lawsuit said. “Nevertheless, it seeks to impose significant monetary penalties on those producers, potentially subjecting other states to increased energy costs, while reaping the financial benefits.”

The new state laws are modeled after the decades-old federal Superfund program, which requires companies to pay for cleaning up hazardous waste. That was a fairly straightforward approach to remediation: Specific sites — say, an old factory or a waste dump — could be identified, investigated and individually addressed.

By contrast, the climate superfund laws rely on emerging fields of science to more broadly quantify economic losses that can be attributed to climate change, and to determine which companies are most responsible.

In California, a climate superfund bill was introduced last year and did not advance, but Ms. Siegel said that she expected the bill to be reintroduced soon. Similar bills have also been proposed in Maryland, Massachusetts and New Jersey.

The climate superfund laws are running on a parallel track to a raft of lawsuits by state and local governments accusing oil companies of covering up the danger of climate change and saying that they should bear the costs. Those lawsuits are facing varying reception in state courtrooms around the country.