Following years of delays, the Environmental Protection Agency has approved a cleanup plan for the San Jacinto River waste pits, a contaminated site near Houston. The approval comes with a set of strict requirements.
#EnergyEnvironment #Environment #EnvironmentalJustice #HarrisCounty #Houston #Local #News #Dioxins #HoustonPollution #SanJacintoRiver #SanJacintoRiverWastePits #TexasHealthAndEnvironmentalAlliance #USEnvironmentalProtectionAgency
What good are #TreatyRights if the fish are poisoned?
Monday, July 14, 2025
By George Ochenski, Daily Montanan
"By virtually any measure, the #ConfederatedSalishKootenai Tribal Nation is an incredible success story against all odds. Forcibly removed from their homeland in the Bitterroot Valley, despite not having waged war against the white settlers or army, their own '#TrailOfTears' brought them to the Flathead Valley to live within the boundaries of the vastly reduced lands they retained in the #HellgateTreatyOf1855.
"Although the #HellgateTreaty is widely regarded as one of the best treaties signed by any of the nation’s #IndigenousPeople, even land supposedly reserved for the exclusive habitation of the #SalishKootenai was opened to purchase by non-tribal #settlers by the #DawesAct of 1887.
"The act’s intentions were to allocate reservation lands the tribes already owned to individual families as private property and, as part of the 'civilization' of #NativeAmericans, it required tribal members to register with the federal government to receive their 'allotment.'
"The entire debacle was part of the #AllotmentAndAssimilationEra from 1887 to 1934. Simply put, the federal government’s plan was to force Native Americans to be 'assimilated' into #EuropeanAmerican culture.
"Importantly, any reservation lands not allocated to tribal members was deemed
'surplus' land and opened to purchase by non-tribal settlers. This excursion into #ReservationLands was further exacerbated by the ability of tribal members to sell their allotment parcels to non-tribal members.
"The fracturing of the Salish-Kootenai’s tribal lands through sales to non-tribal members continues to cause serious problems today, including the long and on-going battle to retain their #water, #hunting and #fishing #TreatyRights.
"Article III of the Hellgate Treaty could not be more clear regarding the Tribe’s fishing rights: 'The exclusive right of taking fish in all the streams running through or bordering said reservation is further secured to said Indians; as also the right of taking fish at all usual and accustomed places…'
"Yet, just last month the Confederated Salish-Kootenai Tribal Nation issued a very serious warning to tribal members regarding the fish they have treaty rights to catch because they are poisoned.
CSKT Fish Consumption Advisory
"The Confederated Salish and Kootenai Tribes issued a fish consumption advisory on June 24, 2025, warning tribal citizens not to eat fish due to the presence of Polychlorinated biphenyls (#PCBs), #dioxins and #furans at levels deemed unsafe for humans: Source: Confederated Salish and Kootenai Tribes
"The #FishConsumptionAdvisory urges 'all tribal members to avoid consuming all species and sizes of fish harvested from the lower Clark Fork River from the Bitterroot River near Missoula to the Flathead River near Paradise. Recent testing has confirmed the presence of polychlorinated biphenyls, dioxins and furans in fish at levels that are unsafe for consumption by Tribal peoples. It is also advisable to avoid consuming rainbow trout and northern pike harvested from the Bitterroot River and the upper Clark Fork River above the Bitterroot River to Rock Creek, and, to avoid consuming rainbow trout from the Blackfoot River.
"As the Advisory explains: 'These contaminants pose a health risk to all fish consumers, and an even greater health risk to the most sensitive members of the Tribal population including women of child bearing age, pregnant nursing women, and young children. These contaminants have been linked to negative health effects in the immune, and nervous systems and may be associated with birth defects…PCBs and dioxins are classified as probable and definite #HumanCarcinogens, respectively.'
"So what good are treaty fishing rights if you can’t eat the fish because they’re poisoned? Are they really 'rights' — or is this just another in our nation’s long and shameful history of abrogating its treaties with Native Americans?
"Moreover, #Montana’s poison fish affect us all. Just as our government has failed the Salish-Kootenai, they have likewise failed to uphold our rights to the 'swimmable/fishable waters' guaranteed by the #CleanWaterAct — because no one, tribal or non-tribal, is immune to poisoned fish."
#WaterIsLife #TribalNations #NativeAmericanNews #WaterPollution #PoisonedFish #StolenLand #LandBack #EPAFail
In #Italy has started the season of #fire in recycling #facilities, usually employed in illicit disposal of industrial #waste, see more: https://www.ilsole24ore.com/art/incendio-fiumicino-fiamme-capannoni-e-rifiuti-AHfJx6ZB
Months after elevated levels of toxic chemicals were detected outside of a Fifth Ward community center in Houston, the Environmental Protection Agency's most recent soil testing results returned safe levels.
#EnergyEnvironment #EnvironmentalJustice #Houston #Local #News #CancerClusters #Creosote #Dioxins #FifthWard #KashmereGardens #SoilTesting
The results of the first round of residential soil sampling in Houston's Fifth Ward have been released, and the EPA will be holding office hours Wednesday through Saturday for residents to discuss their results.
#EnergyEnvironment #HealthScience #Houston #Local #News #CancerCluster #Creosote #Dioxins #Epa #FifthWard #UnionPacific
Federal environmental regulators have found cancer-causing chemicals in the groundwater and air beneath the soil near the contaminated Union Pacific railyard in northeast Houston.
#EnergyEnvironment #Houston #Local #News #Chemicals #Creosote #Dioxins #Epa #FifthWard #KashmereGardens #Railyard #UnionPacific
#Farmers Deceived About #Sewage #Sludge Safety
April 2, 2010
"On March 27th [2010] Citizens for Sludge-Free Land sent a letter to the #Virginia Department of Environmental Quality and US #EPA Region 3 that information provided to Virginia landowners about using sewage sludges as #fertilizer is deceptive. Land application permits are being granted in several Virginia counties without informing farmers of the serious risks associated with this practice. The VA code specifies, that to be valid, these permits can only be granted with the #InformedConsent of the landowner.
"The Federal #CleanWater Act defines sewage sludge as a #pollutant. Most of the pollutants that sewage treatment plants remove from wastewater concentrate in the resulting sludge. Exempt from #hazardous and solid waste laws, sludge is being spread on #agricultural land, despite mounting scientific evidence and field reports that using this contaminated waste as a cheap fertilizer is neither safe, beneficial, nor sustainable.
"The Virginia Cooperative Extension Service as well as Nutri-Blend Inc., the company that needs permits to spread sludge, are failing to provide landowners with the necessary facts, so they can make an informed decision whether or not to treat their land with sludge. The widely distributed Extension Service biosolids fact sheets-- although deceptively dated May 9, 2009-- provide out-dated, inaccurate, incomplete, and in some cases, misleading information. They overstate the alleged benefits and totally ignore the known risks and recent documented evidence of adverse health and #environmental impacts linked to sludge use. The fact sheets and brochures give the illusion that land applying sewage sludge, a complex and variable mixture of #HumanWaste and thousands of industrial #chemicals, many of which are #toxic and persistent, is a safe and normal agricultural practice.
"The information provided to landowners deceptively downplays the health risks of exposure to odors, odorant compounds, endotoxins, bacteria-laden dusts, and toxic gases at land application sites that can cause severe and permanent #lung damage. Nor are farmers told that typical sludges generated in industrialized urban areas contain not only pathogens, but also #PCBs, #dioxins, #carcinogens, #pharmaceuticals, flame retardants [#PFAS], and hormone disrupting chemicals that can damage developing organisms in parts per trillion. Many of these pollutants do not break down once they are applied to land. Worse, partial breakdown products are often more toxic than the parent material. Yet federal regulations require testing and standards for only nine toxic metals. Perhaps most important, the information provided to farmers fails to disclose that the National Academies of Science has indicated that while there are serious health concerns associated with many of the constituents of sewage sludge, there is too much uncertainty to scientifically predict the true health and environmental risks, when this complex waste mixture is applied to land.
"Finally, farmers are not told that sludge-exposure has been linked to illnesses, human deaths, livestock mortalities, groundwater pollution, and permanently degraded land. Unless there is a true and accurate disclosure of all the risks associated with this practice, there can be no true consent.
"Without informed consent, the state should not be issuing permits."
Link to archived web page (TY @internetarchive!):
https://web.archive.org/web/20221227022631/https://organicconsumers.org/press/farmers-deceived-about-sewage-sludge-safety
#PFOS #ChemicalIndustries #ToxicWaste #WaterIsLife #ForeverChemicals
> There’s much more PFAS in the fish than the drinking water.
> This fall, a Veterans for Peace delegation to Japan will test rivers near U.S. military bases for the carcinogens.
https://www.militarypoisons.org/latest-news/whats-in-your-fish-japannbsp
#PatElder #PFAS #PFOS #Dioxins #MilitaryPoisons #MilitaryBasePollution #MilitaryBaseToxins #VeteransForPeace
https://www.nytimes.com/2023/05/25/us/supreme-court-epa-water-pollution.html
Times Beach, Love Canal … and now East Palestine. I wonder what will happen to that town and the next one that is affected by an unprecedented and unpredictable accident?
#eastpalestine #environmentaljustice #contamination #environnement #dioxins #regulation #rail
Dioxins have forced entire towns to relocate. Testing could reveal if they threaten East Palestine. - NBC News https://apple.news/AR9lZnw2ZTtCaASkU0m832A
Trying to explain it again.
The main sources of #dioxins are landfills, garbage incinerators and paper mills
The more chlorine present when you burn PVC -solid-, the more dioxins are released.
What has been burned in #EastPalestine is not PVC but #VynilChloride, a precursor of PVC
There are ALREADY #dioxins if u used to burn garbage or wind carry emissions from paper mills
When u have sources and sinks of a chemical element or compound it goes by a cycle
so follow up after accident is just fine
East Palestine residents erupt at town hall with Norfolk Southern official | The Hill
https://thehill.com/policy/energy-environment/3882288-east-palestine-residents-erupt-at-town-hall-with-norfolk-southern-official/
#dioxins #East_Palestine #East_Palestine train derailment #EPA #Norfolk_Southern
This is relieving to see. #dioxins are persistent and #toxic. They can be formed during burning and can last for decades in the environment.
---
RT @RiverValleyOrg
This is huge: because of community pressure and demands, the @EPA will now require Norfolk Southern to test for dioxins.
This is why we organize. Coming together and demanding action is the only way we will create change and get what our community needs. https://www.wfmj…
https://twitter.com/RiverValleyOrg/status/1631400046036910084
About #EastPalestine in #Ohio. #Dioxins are a persistent pollutant They are released for example when burning plastic waste such as #PVC and the criteria is that the more chlorine is present in what is burned, the more dioxins are released
#VinylChloride is a precursor of PVC that when burning forms #HydrogenChloride vapor -boils at 48ºC- #CarbonMonoxide and #CarbonDioxide and very little #Phosgene
If chlorine volatilized in #HydrogenChloride,#Dioxins will be less of a problem
One of the many downsides to vinyl chloride-based plastics is that when they burn, they form toxic #dioxins that bioaccumulate in people and animals and take decades to clear. It’s time to end production of halogenated plastics and transition to safer alternatives. #EastPalestine
https://www.npr.org/2023/02/16/1157333630/east-palestine-ohio-train-derailment
> When Hallett first conceived the idea of the Destructor, there were still only two ways to deal with toxic waste: store it or burn it. Storage inevitably means leakage and contamination. Incineration multiplies the problem: toxic furans and dioxin float out of smokestacks; filters and scrubbers are packed with poison; there are mounds of ash to be disposed of the process requires massive amounts of energy
http://justinsmallbridge.com/clips/19970301CBdestructor.html
#DougHallet #Dioxins #Incinerator #EcoLogic #ToxicWaste
🇳🇫 #TAIWAN: ❝Customs seizes #Chinese 🇨🇳 mitten crabs over #dioxins❞
https://www.taipeitimes.com/News/taiwan/archives/2023/01/04/2003791972
There was an old Greenpeace leaflet on #Incinerators and #Dioxins. #Japan had eight times the number of incinerators as #Germany. A few searches didn't show me any new data..
> Japan has almost 2,000 #IncinerationPlants, compared with fewer than 100 in America. There are several reasons as to why Japan and #America have radically different waste disposal systems, primarily related to the geographic and cultural differences between the nations.
https://coordinates.ce.gatech.edu/japan-sustainable-development/rubbish-system-why-incineration-works-japan
#WasteIncineration #USA
https://tiksi.net/page/bsmall2/chlorinebycharliecray
#hubzilla webpage version of the article about #dioxins and #chlorine
> Incinerators are an unsustainable and obsolete method fordealing with waste. As global opposition to incineration continues to
grow, innovative philosophies and practices for sustainable
management of discards are being developed and adopted around
the world.
- https://www.no-burn.org/wp-content/uploads/2021/11/Waste-Incineration-A-Dying-Technology.pdf
#Incinerators #焼却炉 #WasteDisposal #Dioxins #Pollution #ZeroWaste
