BURNSVILLE, Minn., March 02, 2023 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) — RZ Industries, a family-owned company focused on air filtration technology, announced today the release of RZ AIRflow, a transformative portable air purification filter that attaches to ductless heating and cooling systems like those found in hotel rooms.

“As a frequent traveler who suffers from allergies, I would always find myself waking up in hotel rooms feeling sick,” said Steve Torbenson, founder and CEO of RZ Industries. “I wanted to create an air filtration system that could easily adapt to AC units in hotels, schools or communal living spaces that was simple and durable enough for the average person to use — and I think we accomplished that with RZ AIRflow.”

RZ AIRflow is designed to attach in seconds to packaged terminal air conditioners,  ductless, through-the-wall heating and cooling systems. The RZ AIRflow is collapsible, lightweight and comes with a protective case that easily fits in a suitcase or carry-on luggage. 

In addition to being user-friendly, RZ AIRflow:  

• Purifies up to 99.97% of allergens and bacteria, reduces viruses down to .3 microns and cuts down on odors and stale air, all within minutes of use. 
• Comes with long-lasting, replaceable HEPA and active carbon filters that are more cost-effective than stand-alone air purifiers. 
• Continually runs for up to six months without any additional electricity so businesses and consumers can “set it and forget it.”

Through November 2023, RZ Industries is donating $1 from every sale of their products including their masks and the RZ AIRflow, to the  American Lung Association, guaranteeing a minimum donation of $30,000. The American Lung Association saves lives by improving lung health and preventing lung disease through education, advocacy and research.  

RZ Industries will also donate $1 from every sale of their products to the COPD Foundation through January 2024. The COPD Foundation provides support, resources and education to people living with COPD, bronchiectasis and nontuberculous myobacterial lung disease.

“Partnering with organizations like the American Lung Association and the COPD Foundation felt like a natural fit for us as a company,” said Torbenson. “Since we founded the company over a decade ago, we’ve been committed to giving back to communities and helping people impacted by bad air quality.” 

For more information on how RZ Industries helps people breathe easier, please visit rzindustries.com.

About RZ Industries  
RZ Industries is a family-owned Minnesota-based company focused on building innovative air filtration technology. Named one of Inc. 5000’s fastest-growing private companies in the United States two years in a row, RZ Industries is dedicated to helping people breathe easier no matter where they are. RZ products, including the RZ AIRflow and its collection of masks, are used in more than 60 countries by firefighters, woodworkers, motor sports athletes and anyone looking to protect themselves from viruses, pollen and other air pollutants. Since the company’s inception in 2010, RZ Industries has partnered with organizations like the Lung Transplant Foundation, St. Jude Medical and Chosen Children Ministries to give away thousands of masks to those in need. For more information, visit www.rzindustries.com.

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Originally Appeared Here

Your child could go to gym class on Monday morning and play soccer on a field that was sprayed over the weekend with 2,4-D, a toxic weedkiller that has been investigated as possibly causing cancer.

Alternatively, the school grounds may have been treated with a lower-toxicity weedkiller. Or maybe the grounds were managed with safe, nontoxic products and techniques.

Which of these scenarios applies depends in large part on your state’s laws and regulations today – more so than federal regulations.

For example, Texas requires all school districts to adopt an integrated pest management program for school buildings; IPM prioritizes nonchemical pest control methods and includes some protections regarding spraying of grounds. Massachusetts also restricts pesticide use on school grounds. Illinois requires IPM for school buildings only if economically feasible. States also vary greatly in the education and technical assistance they provide to implement these practices.

Although the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency is involved in some baseline pesticide functions, shortcomings of the main pesticide law, along with industry influence, can leave vulnerable groups like children inadequately protected from these exposures.

EPA registers products for use based on a finding that they do not cause an “unreasonable” risk but considers economic costs and benefits, an approach that can result in decisions that pose health risks. And required labels may omit ingredients considered trade secrets.

As an environmental health lawyer and professor, I teach, write and think about the pros and cons of one level of government or the other overseeing environmental health – the impact of the natural and human-made environment on human health. Pesticides on school grounds are just one example of the problem of uneven protection from one state to the next.

Congress eased off, states stepped in

State policy choices have become more important for limiting people’s exposure to pollution and toxins as the federal government has increasingly retreated from major environmental health lawmaking.

Many of the country’s major environmental health laws were passed in the 1970s on the momentum of the environmental movement and with bipartisan support that is rarely seen today.

For example, the Clean Air Act amendments of 1970 required U.S. EPA to regulate a wide range of air pollutants, in some cases based explicitly on protecting human health. They were approved 374-1 in the House and 73-0 by the Senate and signed into law by President Richard M. Nixon. Nixon signed the law that created the Occupational Safety and Health Administration in 1971.

One analyst has written that groups that pressed legislators for environmental protection later splintered into groups advocating for and against environmental laws, reflecting an emerging debate over the appropriate extent of regulation.

At the same time, after the success of many federal environmental health laws, attention turned to problems that are harder for Washington to solve.

With state environmental programs growing, some suggested that the U.S. EPA’s role should shift from compelling to catalyzing – from requiring specific pollution-reducing actions to helping states act by providing increased information and help with compliance.

Yet this view acknowledged that under this scenario, residents of some states would enjoy stronger environmental health protections than others.

Reflecting this dynamic and the extent of political division in the U.S., even when the federal government does create tougher environmental regulations, they are often reversed by the succeeding administration or challenged in court.

Sometimes, states should make the decisions

In some cases, it makes sense to leave decisions to states. A health department in a western state may focus on protecting vulnerable groups from wildfire smoke, given the growth of blazes in that part of the country. Some states may welcome fracking operations while others prefer to keep them out.

States can also serve as laboratories of innovation, and the experiences of state programs and policies can inform federal actions.

But this regulatory patchwork creates inequities. If you live in one of the dozen-and-a-half states that follow California’s tailpipe emissions standards rather than the less stringent federal standards, you probably benefit from reduced air pollution.

The same holds for East Coast residents within the confederation of the Regional Greenhouse Gas Initiative, which limits greenhouse gas emissions – and other air pollutants in the process. A recent study that compared RGGI states with neighboring non-RGGI states concluded that data “indicate that RGGI has provided substantial child health benefits,” including a reduction in childhood asthma cases.

Drinking water limits or labeling requirements for PFAS – perfluoroalkyl and polyfluoroalkyl substances – also vary by state. PFAS are found in products from nonstick cookware to some personal care products, and they have been linked with a range of troubling health effects. Because of their toxicity, broad scope of contamination and longevity in the environment, 18 states’ attorneys general are asking for a federal law.

How you can hold lawmakers to account

Environmental health often suffers from a cycle of panic and neglect. People worry about a concern like the chemical alar used on apples, until the next issue erupts. The public can keep up pressure on state and federal decision-makers to consider how the environment affects health in an array of ways:

• One person can be dismissed as an outlier, so start a group or join other groups that have similar interests.
• Research the problem and best practices and possible solutions, like program or policy development, education or stepped-up enforcement. Then call, email and send letters to elected representatives and request a meeting to clearly and concisely explain your concerns and ideas.
  Identify a “champion” – someone in a position to spearhead a change, like a school nurse or facilities manager – and reach out to them.
• Get the issue into the local news media by writing op-eds and social media posts. Be sure to communicate benefits of the action you’re advocating, like improved school attendance or financial return on investment.
• Attend public meetings and speak on the issue during the public comment period. Successes at the local level can provide examples for state officials.

This article is republished from The Conversation under a Creative Commons license. Read the original article.

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Comment on the draft SHARP Tool

We know of about 7,000 contaminated sites in Washington that are being cleaned up or need to be cleaned up. They range from small spills of gasoline to soil to massive sites with multiple chemical contaminants affecting every part of a site. Ranking contaminated sites can help us direct our work and resources.

Since 1992 we’ve used the Washington Ranking Method, or WARM, to rank sites. Over the past few years, we looked at ways to improve our site ranking process and decided it was time to replace WARM. This decision was written into the proposed amendments to Washington’s cleanup regulations, the Model Toxics Control Act (MTCA) Cleanup Rule.

We’ve developed a new site hazard and ranking process that we’re calling SHARP. Because site rankings can impact how we prioritize our work, we want people to have a chance to look under the hood and see how the scores are made. You can comment on both the proposed rule and the draft SHARP tool until April 16, 2023.

The new tool

The SHARP tool walks reviewers through SHARP and calculates scores to help us identify sites that pose the greatest chemical exposure risks to people and other livings things.

Benefits of the new tool

• The SHARP tool is quicker and easier to use than WARM. This should let us rank more sites and re-rank sites as we get new information and as sites get cleaned up. With WARM, we ranked only sites that seemed the riskiest or sites that received public funding.
• WARM rankings take into account air, surface water, and groundwater. SHARP assesses indoor air, surface water, groundwater, sediment, and soil.
• SHARP’s multi-part scores give us more information about what’s going on at a site.
• The SHARP tool includes socioeconomic questions about who lives or works on or near a site. This information can help us work to improve environmental equity.
• SHARP is more flexible, so we can adapt to emerging issues and new science and technology.

What the SHARP scores mean

Contamination is risky if a chemical can cause harm and it’s in a place where people or other living things can be exposed to it. The SHARP Tool scores the exposure potential and its severity and creates five two-part scores. It displays these scores and other information in a text-based report and a graphic summary.

Media: where’s the mess?

Wait, five scores? Yes, that’s because the tool calculates separate scores for soil, groundwater, surface water, sediment, and indoor air. Each of these environmental media is a different path by which someone, or some critter, might be exposed to contamination. Tracking them separately gives us the ability to focus on particular issues, like healthy drinking water. It also gives us a better picture of the site.

Exposure

The exposure score answers the question “How likely are people or other living things to be exposed to the contamination at this site?” It’s graded A–D, where A is “there is a known exposure happening right now”, and D is “there’s no likely way for people or other living things to be exposed to this contamination.”

The goal of contamination cleanup is to prevent exposure to contamination. If there’s contamination at a site, but no living thing can reach it or be exposed to it, then the contamination isn’t causing any harm. There are lots of natural examples of this: asbestos, arsenic, and heavy metals are all naturally occurring, and only cause problems when humans or other living things contact them in certain ways.

Severity

The severity score is an estimate of how risky something would be if people or other living things were exposed. It’s estimated on a scale of 1 to 4, where 1 is the most severe and 4 is the least.

More than just numbers

These five scores give us a picture of what and where contamination is at a site, but they’re not the only info reported in SHARP.

• Rating how much we know
  Often, our initial information about a site is very limited. For instance, we might know a chemical barrel spilled on soil, but not what the chemical was. Using SHARP, we can identify sites where we need more information. This confidence score is included on the SHARP report.
• Looking at the bigger picture
  SHARP is focused on exposure and severity, but it’s also important to know about issues that don’t fit neatly into either box. For instance, a site might be in a neighborhood that already has other pollution problems, or it might be vulnerable to rising sea levels or flooding. The SHARP reports include community demographics, existing pollution issues, and other information about the context of the contaminated site. This can help our efforts towards environmental justice and climate change resilience.

Take the SHARP tool for a test drive!

During this comment period, we’d like you to download the SHARP tool and the SHARP tool manual, and take a peek. The draft SHARP tool is in Microsoft Excel format, so you can see all the nuts and bolts of how calculations are made (warning: you’ll need that high-school algebra you thought you’d never use).

For this comment period, any comments should be about the SHARP tool itself and how well it works, not about how the results will be used. Think of it like looking under the hood and kicking tires before starting a road trip. After this public comment period, we’ll develop policy and internal guidance as separate steps.

So download the files, grab the keys, and take the SHARP tool for a test drive. If the algebra is too much — we’re not all toxicologists — you can still take a look at the reports to see how the “final product” of an assessment might look.

Then tell us what you think!

What happens next?

We’ll review your feedback, and then finalize how the SHARP tool works. Then we’ll convert it into a software application. We’ll also work on combining the five scores — for soil, groundwater, surface water, sediment, and indoor air — into one overall site score, so we can provide a quick estimate of a site’s comparative risk. Over time, we’ll integrate the application with our other data tools, like Cleanup and Tank Search, so you’ll be able to see SHARP scores as we update them.

The current cleanup regulations require we use the outdated WARM. We won’t start publishing SHARP results until an amended version of the rule is adopted, but we’ll be busy at work in the background. 

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Bills would only add to Utah’s already overwhelming air pollution.

(Chris Detrick/The Salt Lake Tribune via AP)

This June 3, 2011, photo shows the Huntington coal-fired Power Plant owned by PacifiCorp in Huntington, Utah.

By Malin Moench | Special to The Tribune

  | March 1, 2023, 4:00 p.m.

Life-shortening pollution and thousand-year mega droughts — these are the twin “blessings” that relying on fossil fuels has bestowed on Utah residents. The Wasatch Front chronically violates federal air quality standards for the “Big Three” pollutants (ozone, sulfur dioxide, and fine soot). This is our reward for continuing to choose fossil fuels over renewables to produce most of our electricity and run most of our vehicles. The resulting pollution shortens our lives by an average of two years, according to Brigham Young University scientists.

As carbon builds up in our atmosphere it makes our desert climate relentlessly hotter and dryer. BYU scientists tell us that this (and water supply mismanagement), will cause the Great Salt Lake to die and Lake Powell to reach “dead pool” within five years. The lake’s looming death, the toxic dust storms that will ensue and the utter failure of our state’s political leaders to respond to this crisis, is a story that has made national headlines.

As if damaging our lungs and our climate were not enough, continuing to choose fossil fuels over renewable is hurting our wallets. Thanks to the plunging costs of renewables and recent Inflation Reduction Act tax credits, it will cost Rocky Mountain Power more to keep operating its obsolete coal-fired power plants than it would cost to build and operate solar farms of equal capacity, including full battery backup.

Thanks to the plunging costs of batteries and recent Inflation Reduction Act tax credits, it will now cost a consumer more to buy, drive, and maintain a polluting gas powered car over its full service life than a battery electric car of the same class.

Now that the damage that fossil fuels have inflicted on our health, our climate and our wallets has reached emergency proportions, you would think that Utah legislators would try to meet the emergency head on. What are they doing instead?

They are forcing taxpayers to pick up Rocky Mountain Power’s legal bills as it fights for its right to pollute (an appropriations request from Rep. Carl Albrecht). Condemning any clean air regulations that would burden Utah’s coal-fired power plants (HCR9, sponsored by Rep. Mike Schultz and Sen. Evan Vickers). Pulling the plug on state incentives to build renewable power plants (HB407, sponsored by Rep. Kay Kristofferson). Shifting fuel taxes from dirty gas cars to clean electric vehicles (HB301, sponsored by Schultz).

The Legislature sits on a $2 billion surplus. It could easily take a third of that surplus and purchase enough agricultural water rights to save the Great Salt Lake for decades to come. What has it done? So far, it has earmarked one one-hundredth of the surplus ($15 million) to take that essential step.

If you ever have to call 911 to report that your house is on fire, be glad our legislators wouldn’t be driving the fire truck. If they were, likely as not, they would jump in the truck, race to your house, and spray gasoline on the smoldering blaze.

Malin Moench, Holladay, has analyzed legal and economic issues relating to pubic utilities at the federal level for 37 years. Now retired, he volunteers for non-profit organizations that protect public health and the environment.

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Originally Appeared Here

Award reflects company’s consistent level of customer service

Effort, PA: Jeff’s HVAC is proud to announce that it has earned the home service industry’s coveted Angi Super Service Award (SSA). This award, first released in 1999, recognizes the best home professionals and businesses in the Angi network for their hard work, dedication, and commitment to providing Angi customers a great experience.

“Through changing microeconomic factors like inflation, rising interest rates, material shortages and supply chain issues, Angi Super Service Award Winners delivered best in class customer service. These businesses are putting customers front and center and going above and beyond, providing great value, service and quality work,” said Angie Hicks, Chief Customer Officer, Angi. “Our homeowners’ consistent positive reviews make it clear: these are the best pros in our network. Congratulations to all of our Super Service Award Winners.”

Angi Super Service Award 2022 winners have met stringent eligibility requirements, across ratings and reviews during the eligibility window of November 1st, 2021 – October 31st, 2022. Pros on Angi qualify for the award by obtaining 3 or more services-performed reviews during the review period, maintaining a current and lifetime rating of at least 4.5 stars. The SSA winners must be in good standing with Angi and have undergone our verification/screening.

Jeff’s HVAC has been on Angi since 2020. Service company ratings are updated continually on Angi as new, verified consumer reviews are submitted. Companies are rated in multiple fields ranging from price to professionalism to punctuality.

For over two decades Angi has been a trusted name for connecting consumers to top-rated service professionals. Angi provides unique tools and support designed to improve the local service experience for both consumers and service professionals.

About Jeff’s HVAC: Located in Effort, Pennsylvania, Jeff’s HVAC provides heating and cooling services, as well as indoor air quality testing. With over 30 years of experience, they guarantee their workmanship and will treat your home with care and respect. Jeff’s HVAC is available 24/7 to take your call.
 

Information provided to TVL by:
Quantifi Media

 

 

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How does exposure to wildfire smoke affect pregnant people and their developing babies? UC Davis Health researchers hope to answer that question, thanks to a new two-year, $1.35 million grant from the Environmental Protection Agency.

The study is led by molecular epidemiologist Rebecca J. Schmidt, an associate professor in Public Health Sciences, and Miriam Nuño, a professor in the Division of Biostatistics.

The researchers are gathering birth and health records as well as data about wildfire smoke exposure in California. They’ll look for links between pollution from wildfire smoke and low birth weight, developmental delays and autism.

The team is also partnering with regional organizations to educate underserved communities about the impact of smoke and provide strategies to reduce exposure.

“This is a California study, but the whole country is being exposed to wildfire smoke,” explained Schmidt, who is also a faculty member at the UC Davis MIND Institute, the Perinatal Origins of Disparities (POD) Center, and the Environmental Health Sciences Center. “It’s important to find out what the real concerns during pregnancy may be — including perhaps at what times during pregnancy we need to have moms be the most careful about their exposure.”

Schmidt has a history of studying the impacts of wildfire smoke on pregnancy and children. Her previous research involved collecting hair, blood and other samples from pregnant people and newborns. Her findings from that study will complement this new work. 

Collecting data on smoke exposure, births and health

Wildfire seasons are becoming longer and more severe. It is estimated that wildfire smoke is linked to 339,000 premature deaths each year worldwide.

In California, where massive wildfires such as the Camp, Caldor and Dixie fires have affected both urban and rural areas, hundreds of thousands of pregnant people have been exposed to wildfire smoke.

“Studies have shown associations between wildfire smoke and lower birth weight or preterm birth, which are linked to later health outcomes,” Schmidt said.

The study has four areas of focus:

1. Find out which areas of California were exposed to the most wildfire air pollution.
2. Study wildfire smoke exposures before pregnancy and during each trimester of pregnancy. Researchers will look at these in relation to birth weight and gestational age as well as factors like neighborhood and local environment.
3. Explore associations between wildfire smoke exposure and autism and developmental delays.
4. Work with community partners to share research results and tools to help reduce smoke exposure in vulnerable populations.

“Our first step is to see who has the greatest exposures to these repeated wildfire events,” Schmidt explained. “Then we’ll look at how that varies by factors such as race, ethnicity, rural versus urban location, poverty level and exposure to other pollutants.”  

The study will include all people born in California between Jan. 1, 2000, and Dec. 31, 2021 — roughly 11 million births. However, when looking at autism and developmental delays, researchers will only include people over 3 years of age by the end of 2021. Autism diagnosis is typically more reliable after this age.

Researchers will use state birth records, historical air monitor readings and health records from the California Department of Developmental Services.

Empowering vulnerable populations

The study aims to identify vulnerable populations where people are exposed not only to wildfire smoke but also to other pollution and pesticides and have less access to health care.

“Even though we are all exposed to wildfire smoke, we all have different risks,” explained Nuño. “If you have can work from home versus having an outdoor job, this is where these differences really manifest.”

The researchers are partnering with the March of Dimes, Empower Yolo and the Knights Landing One Health Center, which provides health care in the rural Central Valley community.

Together, they’ll deliver their findings and strategies for reducing exposure to wildfire smoke to underserved communities. This will include providing the materials and training to help people make Corsi-Rosenthal Air Boxes. This is a low-cost filtration system that’s been shown to be effective at removing particulates from indoor air. Creator Richard L. Corsi, dean of the UC Davis College of Engineering, is a partner on the project.

“This project will advance solutions to challenges lying at the intersection of climate change and environmental justice, both here in California and in communities around the country,” said EPA Pacific Southwest Regional Administrator Martha Guzman. “Advancing scientific research that helps protect public health and the environment is central to EPA’s mission and this project will have lasting results for years to come.”

Environmental justice is a major focus, notes Nuño, who is also the interim director of the Center for Healthcare Policy and Research.

“Pregnant women are stressed about the impact of wildfires — especially those who are more vulnerable. Justice calls for empowering these women with this information,” she said.

Other collaborators include:

• Beate Ritz, professor of epidemiology, environmental health and neurology at UCLA
• Irva Hertz-Picciotto, director of the Environmental Health Sciences Center
• Kathryn Conlon, assistant professor in the Department of Public Health Sciences and School of Veterinary Medicine, Department of Medicine and Epidemiology
• Michael Kleeman, professor, Department of Civil and Environmental Engineering
• Sean Raffuse, associate director of software and data, UC Davis Air Quality Research Center
• Deborah Bennett, professor, Department of Public Health Sciences
• Natalia Deeb-Sossa, professor, Chicana/o Studies

Disclaimer: AAAS and EurekAlert! are not responsible for the accuracy of news releases posted to EurekAlert! by contributing institutions or for the use of any information through the EurekAlert system.

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Originally Appeared Here

The Indiana landfill selected to house hazardous waste from the train derailment in Ohio has a history of violations, according to a U.S. Environmental Protection Agency site.

It has had 12 quarters of noncompliance dating back to the spring of 2020, the EPA’s Enforcement and Compliance History Online database shows. It is unclear what the specific violations are.

The landfill sits outside of Roachdale, a small town about 40 miles west of Indianapolis. Operated by Heritage Environmental Services, it is certified to handle hazardous waste. On its website, Heritage said in a release that it has roughly 14 million cubic yards of permitted landfill capacity and added that the landfill is geologically isolated.

Neither the EPA nor Heritage Environmental Services have responded to IndyStar questions regarding the facility’s compliance issues.

Railroad Safety:Indiana communities at risk for train disasters like the one that devastated Ohio town

Indiana Gov. Eric Holcomb said in a statement Tuesday that he continues to object to the EPA’s decision to bring contaminated soil and liquids from the wreck to the state. Fellow Republican and U.S. Sen. Mike Braun also said Tuesday that he’s opposed to the waste being sent to Indiana.

Holcomb said there has been a “lack of communication” with him and other Indiana officials about the decision, which the EPA announced Monday.

After concerns were raised on where waste from the Feb. 3 train derailment in East Palestine, Ohio, was going, the EPA paused the shipments to review the disposal plans of Norfolk Southern, the railroad company behind the derailment. The shipments resumed Monday, and the agency announced some of it would be heading to Indiana.

Roachdale has a population of approximately 1,000 and spans an area of less than one square mile, according to the town website. The community was named after Judge Roach, a railroad official, and is home to local businesses, a library, churches and an elementary school.

Compliance concerns for Indiana landfill

EPA officials had previously said they approved shipments to two agency-certified sites in Ohio. On Monday, EPA Region 5 Administrator Debra Shore said an additional site in Ohio and one in Indiana had also been selected.

Heritage Environmental Services has violated environmental regulations in the past. In 2012, the company had “multiple hazardous waste violations” at an Indianapolis facility, according to a 2017 EPA statement. The next year, a company subsidiary allegedly violated the Clean Air Act at a hazardous waste incinerator in East Liverpool, Ohio, as described in a 2018 U.S. Justice Department release.

That same Ohio incinerator also has been selected to dispose of some of the contaminated waste.

In a release, Heritage Environmental Services said it “is providing support in accordance with the cleanup plan approved by government agencies with jurisdiction over the response to the (East Palestine) event. Materials eligible for management at the HES facility outside of Roachdale will be properly disposed of in accordance with the stringent requirements imposed under the federal Resource Conservation and Recovery Act.”

The Resource Conservation and Recovery Act is a law that governs the management of hazardous and non-hazardous solid waste.

Lingering questions about waste disposal

It is unclear at this time what type of waste — toxic soil or liquids — will be placed in the Roachdale landfill or in what amounts.

The Indiana Department of Environmental Management said it is communicating with the EPA and local authorities in Putnam County to determine exactly what material is being brought to Indiana, when, and in what quantities.

EPA Region 5 administrator Shore said Monday when announcing the additional facilities that she had spoken with officials from both Ohio and Indiana regarding the hazardous waste shipments to their towns.

Support important coverage like this:6 reasons to subscribe to IndyStar during one of our best sales of the year

In his statement, however, Holcomb said that he learned “third-hand that materials may be transported to our state” — similar to concerns raised by local officials in Michigan and Texas. He said that he directed the state’s environmental director to reach out to the agency and he has requested to speak with an EPA official.

“I want to know exactly what precautions will be taken in the transport and disposition of the materials,” Holcomb said in a tweet.

He said he believes the hazardous waste materials should go to the nearest disposal facilities and not be moved “from the far eastern side of Ohio to the far western side of Indiana.”

In a statement sent to IndyStar, the state Department of Environmental Management echoed that thought. The agency said the decision to contract with Heritage Environmental Services for disposition of the hazardous waste was made by Norfolk Southern even though it’s almost 400 miles from the train derailment site.

IDEM said that it does not have the regulatory authority to prevent hazardous waste disposal facilities from accepting materials for which they are permitted to handle and dispose.

Experts worry trains becoming less safe

While the investigation into the Feb. 3 wreck continues, labor leaders and industry experts say trains have become less safe and there is a growing risk for accidents like the one in Ohio. The next one could happen right here in Indiana, a union official said, where nearly every day trains hauling hazardous materials roll over the network of more than 5,000 miles of track that weave across the state. 

In fact, the train that derailed in Ohio passed through Indiana on its journey carrying the very same chemicals, and already had shown signs of trouble when it separated.

Several toxic chemicals, including vinyl chloride and others, were released into the nearby water, soil and air. Nearly 45,000 fish and other animals were killed during the derailment and many residents have complained of headaches, difficulty breathing or skin and eye irritation. Clean-up has been ongoing in the weeks since.

The EPA said it is now getting close to having enough certified facilities to take all the waste that was produced at the site of the derailment in East Palestine.

Roachdale Town Council President Rick Miles said he did not feel comfortable commenting on the EPA’s decision because he has not been able to meet with other council members. Still, he said it is his understanding that Heritage Environmental Services is planning a meeting with the town this week that he believes will be well attended.

“I expect that they will answer any and all questions that anyone may have,” Miles told IndyStar.

Call IndyStar reporter Sarah Bowman at 317-444-6129 or email at [email protected]. Follow her on Twitter and Facebook: @IndyStarSarah. Connect with IndyStar’s environmental reporters: Join The Scrub on Facebook.

IndyStar’s environmental reporting project is made possible through the generous support of the nonprofit Nina Mason Pulliam Charitable Trust.

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Originally Appeared Here