skip to main content
skip to newscasts

Monday, March 18, 2024

Public News Service Logo
facebook instagram linkedin reddit youtube twitter
view newscast page
play newscast audioPlay

SD public defense duties shift from counties to state; SCOTUS appears skeptical of restricting government communications with social media companies; Trump lawyers say he can't make bond; new scholarships aim to connect class of 2024 to high-demand jobs.

view newscast page
play newscast audioPlay

The SCOTUS weighs government influence on social media, and who groups like the NRA can do business with. Biden signs an executive order to advance women's health research and the White House tells Israel it's responsible for the Gaza humanitarian crisis.

view newscast page
play newscast audioPlay

Midwest regenerative farmers are rethinking chicken production, Medicare Advantage is squeezing the finances of rural hospitals and California's extreme swing from floods to drought has some thinking it's time to turn rural farm parcels into floodplains.

Wisconsin Environmentalists: EPA "Asleep at the Wheel"

play audio
Play

Tuesday, March 1, 2016   

MADISON, Wis. - The Environmental Protection Agency has a legal obligation to update toxic air pollution standards every eight years, yet in many cases for certain industries in Wisconsin, the agency has not done so since 2002.

The Clean Air Act requires the EPA to regularly review the health and environmental hazards faced by people who live near major industrial pollution sources.

Clean Wisconsin, the state's largest environmental group, along with the Sierra Club and two other organizations have filed a federal lawsuit demanding that the EPA do its job.

Katie Nekola, general counsel for Clean Wisconsin, says the EPA is "asleep at the wheel."

"We want them to as required by law review all the health risks of the pollutants in these kinds of source categories, these hazardous air pollutants," she says. "And then review advances in technology that can help control those pollutants."

Nekola says the EPA is years overdue in fulfilling its legal duty to protect people from 21 industrial sources of toxic air pollution, several of which are located in Wisconsin.

The suit asks the federal court to insure the EPA does its job to complete rule making to strengthen health protections for all Wisconsinites.

The EPA has 60 days to respond to the suit.

Nekola says it's important the EPA comply with legally-mandated monitoring deadlines, because people rely on the agency for emissions information that's critical to their health.

"If it's come to light since 2002 that some of these chemicals that are coming out of these industrial facilities are more of a risk for cancer," she says. "More of a risk for respiratory illness or whatever than previously thought, then people have a right to know that, and people have a right to demand action."

Nekola says this action is needed to make sure no local communities are left behind as pollution reduction methods advance.


get more stories like this via email

more stories
Corporate partners sign contracts to offer a graduate assistantship and pay the students. In turn, MSU pays the graduate assistant's tuition, fees and salary, so the assistantship is directly tied to the academic experience. (pressmaster/Adobe Stock)

play sound

By Victoria Lim for WorkingNation.Broadcast version by Farah Siddiqi for Missouri News Service reporting for the WorkingNation-Public News Service Col…


Social Issues

play sound

A new report brands Connecticut's tax system as "regressive" for low- to middle-income residents and uses a report from the state to make its point…

Environment

play sound

Backers of a new federal rule said it will increase fairness for livestock and poultry producers, in North Carolina and across the country. The U.S…


A study by the advocacy group Inseparable showed one in five adults said at any given time, they consider their mental health to be either 'fair' or 'poor.' (Adobe Stock)

Health and Wellness

play sound

Mental health care advocates are encouraging federal agencies to adopt a proposed update to regulations which would expand access to psychological car…

Social Issues

play sound

With hotter summers bringing hotter working conditions, the Maryland Department of Labor is implementing a heat stress standard to protect workers …

Social Issues

play sound

By Jimmy Cloutier for OpenSecrets.Broadcast version by Roz Brown for Texas News Service reporting for the OpenSecrets-Public News Service Collaboratio…

Environment

play sound

Recreational fishermen in New England say commercial trawlers are threatening the survival of smaller businesses relying on a healthy stock of Atlanti…

 

Phone: 303.448.9105 Toll Free: 888.891.9416 Fax: 208.247.1830 Your trusted member- and audience-supported news source since 1996 Copyright © 2021