As #Flint struggled with #WaterQuality, it also saw an outbreak of #Legionnaires' disease, leading to the #deaths of at least 12 people & sickening dozens more.

Today, the #EPA states 97% of #lead service lines have been replaced, although last year a federal judge held the city of Flint in #contempt over taking too long to replace some remaining lead pipes.

#Trump’s #budget proposal ends the #EPA’s work w/ #poor & #vulnerable communities. By eliminating the #EnvironmentalJustice program, the admin mocks decades of study showing that communities of color are more likely to live in areas w/higher levels of #pollution, writing that the program “claimed minorities were especially vulnerable to ‘#ClimateChange,’ because of their ‘dependence on climate-sensitive resources,’ such as water & food supplies.’”[#disinformation]
#GeographicEquity #law #science

One peer-reviewed 2021 study, the only one to examine effects in the surrounding community, found elevated levels of #cancer & other maladies for people living closest to the plant.

Denka dismissed this field survey, which was prompted by concerns from a community advocacy group & led by the progressive University Network for #HumanRights, as "flawed & biased" & cited an #EPA assessment that called it "uninformative."

Denka said the lawsuit relied on flawed & outdated data that emerged from studies of mice, while an updated 2021 survey of humans showed no increase in #cancer deaths.

Denka criticized #Biden’s #EPA reliance on the data that assumed affected people would have to breathe chloroprene emissions 24 hrs a day for 70 yrs. Moreover, Denka said the plant's #emissions were reduced 85% after a $35M upgrade completed in 2018.

#CancerAlley, a nickname dating to the 1980s, is an 85-mile stretch from New Orleans to Baton Rouge that is home to some 150 #ChemicalPlants & #oil refineries.

Multiple studies over years point to elevated #health risks, including one in 2022 that found nearly EVERY census tract in the area ranks in the top 5% nationally for #cancer risk.

In 2023, the #Biden admin sued Denka, demanding it eliminate the dangers posed by #chloroprene #emissions.

#Democrats on the #Senate Cmte on #Environment & #Public Works complained in a letter to #LeeZeldin in March that the cancellation of 400 #grants in the name of eliminating #DEI & #EnvironmentalJustice violated several #court orders & terms of #EPA contracts.

At least one #nonprofit group is suing to reactivate an $11.4M grant that was frozen for North Charleston’s Union Heights in South Carolina, one of the first #Black communities established after emancipation from #slavery.

…On March 12, the new #EPA unveiled what it called "the most consequential day of #deregulation in US history" by rolling back 31 initiatives & eliminating the agency's #DEI arm & its 10 regional #EnvironmentalJustice offices, which worked w/communities to ID & mitigate local sources of #pollution. It *said* it has saved $2B in *wasteful* [because some people have no worth] spending by canceling hundreds of #grants in conjunction w/ #billionaire #ElonMusk's #DOGE.

Asked to comment on the findings of this story, an #EPA spox directed Reuters to a video stmnt by #Trump's new #EPA administrator, #LeeZeldin, who has outlined a strategy emphasizing #deregulation, saying the US can protect the #environment & promote economic growth at the same time [note the absence of concern for #PublicHealth & populations in #LowIncome communities].

"It's #DEI being treated like a four-letter word," said Linda Birnbaum, a retired toxicologist & fmr director of the National Institute of #Environmental #Health #Sciences who spent 19 years at the #EPA. "People who are already most impacted by high #pollution are going to be most hurt by the loosening of #regulations."

Those #health inequities are the legacy of racial #discrimination that was legal from the country's inception until 1965, the type of historical #injustice #DEI policies were designed to correct.

#Trump also rescinded a 1994 EO by fmr Pres Bill #Clinton that directed every #FederalAgency to develop an agency-wide #EnvironmentalJustice strategy to address adverse health or #environmental effects on *minority* & #LowIncome populations.

3 #environmental researchers & 5 fmr #EPA ofcls interviewed by Reuters say the end of the EPA's #DEI & #EnvironmentalJustice programs—which seek to ensure a healthy #environment for *minority* groups that often live closest to sources of contamination - will be most felt in #Black & #Hispanic [& #Latin] communities that have long endured the harmful effects of #pollution.

The #Trump admin's press release announcing the end of the lawsuit said the dismissal fulfilled Trump's Day One #ExecutiveOrder to eliminate #diversity, #equity & #inclusion, & that it aligned with the #EPA's new pledge to "end the use of '#EnvironmentalJustice' as a tool for advancing ideological priorities."
[read as opposite of what they say]