The documents are heavily redacted because the agency allows companies to invoke trade-secret claims to keep basic information on new chemicals from public release. Approved Toxic Chemicals for Fracking a Decade Ago, New Files Show - The EPA in 2011 approved the use of PFAS to ease the flow of oil from the ground despite the agency’s own grave concerns about their toxicity, according to the documents reviewed by The New York Times. Delaware County is pursuing legal action against more than two dozen companies it accuses of polluting its groundwater through the use of its products containing PFAS. Pennsylvania Record: Delaware County’s Hired Guns Will Receive 25% of Recovery in PFAS Case - According to records obtained by the Pennsylvania Record through an Open Public Records Act request, private counsel representing the County will receive a 25 percent contingency fee from any damages recovered in the case. The companies will pay for environmental restoration, improvement, sampling and analysis, community environmental justice and equity grants, and other natural resource needs, the department said. The San Diego Tribune: DuPont, Spinoffs to Pay $50M for ‘Forever Chemical’ Cleanup - The settlement is the result of an investigation led by the attorney general’s office into the environmental impacts of legacy industrial activities in Delaware. Whether such a designation comes earlier or later, it is clear that such designation could bring on an array of EPA actions and additional costs. “So if it’s too dangerous for us to use, why should oil and gas companies get to use it?” Youngstown is located near oil and gas production wells and underground injection disposal wells where oil and gas companies inject wastewater from their operations for permanent disposal.JD Supra: CERCLA – One Potential Landing Spot for Regulation of PFAS - The PFAS Action Act of 2021 has the potential to greatly expand the scope of investigation and remediation under CERCLA by imposing an aggressive one-year schedule to designate PFOA and PFOS as “hazardous substances” and a five-year schedule to review all PFAS chemicals for potential designation. “Fire departments are scrambling to get rid of firefighting foam with PFAS in it because EPA says it’s toxic,” said Caggiano, who retired in June 2021 and has trained with fire-fighting foam that contains PFAS. “The potential that these chemicals are being used in oil and gas operations should prompt regulators to take swift action to investigate the extent of this use, pathways of exposure, and whether people are being harmed.” “The lack of transparency about fracking chemicals puts human health at risk.” “PFAS have negative health effects, including cancer, that encompass virtually every system in the human body: the immune system, our reproductive systems, the liver, kidneys,” stated Birnbaum. “It’s very disturbing to see the extent to which critical information about these chemicals is shielded from public view,” added Barbara Gottlieb, PSR’s Environment & Health Program Director. “Considering the terrible history of pollution associated with PFAS, EPA and state governments need to move quickly to ensure that the public knows where these chemicals have been used and is protected from their impacts.” “The evidence that people could be unknowingly exposed to these extremely toxic chemicals through oil and gas operations is disturbing,” said Horwitt. Representatives of the press will have the opportunity to direct questions to the speakers. Wilma Subra, Louisiana-based chemist and MacArthur Foundation “Genius” award winner who has spent decades working to protect people from oil- and gas-related pollution.Silverio Caggiano, recently retired Battalion Chief and hazardous materials expert with the Youngstown, Ohio fire department.toxicologist and former director of the National Institute of Environmental Health Sciences. His reports and investigations have received media coverage in the New York Times, Dallas Morning News, Pittsburgh Post-Gazette, Charleston Gazette, and ProPublica. Horwitt, now consulting for PSR, has researched chemical use in the oil and gas industry for over a decade. Dusty Horwitt, author, researcher and attorney.On Monday, July 12 at noon Eastern time, Physicians for Social Responsibility will host a webinar where report findings will be presented. One of these chemicals was used commercially for unspecified purposes as recently as 2018, according to EPA records.
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