A California environmental advocacy group urged the state’s air pollution regulator and agriculture department to do more for minority communities in an annual report card it published last week.
That report card, compiled by the California Environmental Justice Alliance, issued environmental justice grades to eight agencies, with a statewide C average.
The Imperial County Air Pollution Control District on Tuesday hit the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service and the Imperial Irrigation District with notices of violation for ongoing pollution at a long-stalled Salton Sea restoration project.
The violations allege that the federal agency and the water district have only made sporadic attempts since 2016 to complete work at the several-hundred-acre Red Hill Bay site, “causing numerous instances of elevated levels of airborne dust.”
With climate change-amplified wildfires and power shut-offs becoming commonplace, all Californians are worried about how to stay safe and keep the lights on. Thousands have already purchased dirty, dangerous and noisy fossil fuel generators that exacerbate air pollution and climate change.
New research suggests that polluted air is linked to higher COVID-19 death rates. And coronavirus is expected to be with us through the 2020 fire season. Is it a good idea to add tons of dangerous particulate matter to the air we breathe during a pandemic that attacks the respiratory system? Of course not.
Nine states have sued the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency for curtailing enforcement of rules on air and water pollution during the COVID-19 pandemic, saying the pullback puts the public at even greater risk.
The COVID-19 pandemic shut down Southern California in mid-March, squeezing the life out of the region’s economy. But there may be a silver lining.
The pandemic response got people out of their cars.
As experts warn that exposure to pollution can increase the risk of dying from COVID-19, an array of powerful industries is pressuring California regulators to delay or roll back air quality and climate regulations due to the coronavirus outbreak.
California, along with eight other states, sued the Trump administration Wednesday over the Environmental Protection Agency’s decision to stop requiring companies to monitor and report air and water pollution during the coronavirus pandemic.
Three days after receiving a request from the American Petroleum Institute to halt pollution enforcement, the EPA’s compliance director, Susan Parker Bodine, announced a new policy March 26. Retroactive to March 13, when President Trump had declared a state of emergency over COVID-19, Bodine said, businesses could decide for themselves when it would no longer be practical to monitor pollution and report it to federal, state and local agencies.
California regulators are seizing on a chance to study the public health effects of air pollution, as stay-at-home orders and drops in freight traffic related to the coronavirus pandemic have presented a unique research opportunity.
Two nonprofit advocacy groups on Monday filed legal action against the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency in an attempt to secure stricter air quality standards in Imperial County.
The people of California’s Imperial Valley can be as unforgiving as the region’s harsh desert climate. It’s been 16 years since Bruce Kuhn cast the fateful vote to transfer tens of billions of gallons of Colorado River water from the valley’s sprawling farms to thirsty coastal cities, reshaping water politics in California and across the West.
The Water News Network is San Diego County’s source for water news and information.
