West Virginia coal miners and advocates spoke out this week in support of new silica dust exposure standards at a public hearing held in Beckley.

Sam Petsonk, a labor and employment law attorney, said miners inhale fine silica dust when cutting into rock, and noted he has represented miners in their 30s and 40s with advanced black lung disease and progressive massive fibrosis.

He contended the condition has become more common over the past few decades, largely due to lack of worker protections, and added while the new standards are an improvement, there is little oversight or enforcement written into the proposed rule.

"Although this rule purports to lower the exposure limit, it does not require coal mine operators to conduct routine sampling, and it does not set forth any monetary penalty for violating the dust limit," Petsonk outlined. "It also does not require miners to be removed from dusty areas."

The proposed rule would require operators to limit miners' exposure to respirable crystalline silica to levels at or below 50 micrograms per cubic meter of air for a full eight-hour shift exposure. Anyone can submit public comments online at the federal rule making portal, through Sept. 11.

Gary Hairston, president of the National Black Lung Association, said he hopes the rule will lead to further protections for miners.

"We've been trying for years to try to get something done, but it always depends who's in office," Hairston acknowledged. "I believe if we don't get nothing done within the next two years, then we may get nothing done."

Willie Dodson, central Appalachian field coordinator for the group Appalachian Voices, argued without strict enforcement of the rule, miners will be forced to work in high dust areas and told to wear respirators, contributing to more cases of black lung.

"It's unfair to put the onus on individual workers, and respirators just won't work," Dodson asserted. "Any miner will tell you that it's not practical to wear respirators in the mines and get your job done."

Research from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention shows modern-day coal miners are at greater risk of respiratory disease than their predecessors, likely driven by the silica coal mine dust inhalation.

Cincinnati is part of Bloomberg Philanthropies' $200 million Sustainable Cities initiative and will hire three new staff members to merge climate solutions with Black financial empowerment.

This initiative is part of Cincinnati's broader strategic plans, including the 2023 Green Cincinnati Plan for carbon neutrality by 2050 and the Financial Freedom Blueprint to combat poverty and racial inequity citywide.

Ollie Kroner, directory of Cincinnati's office of environment and sustainability, will prioritize green workforce development, minority-owned businesses support, energy poverty solutions and climate adaptation strategies. Kroner said it is all grant funded.

"Bloomberg philanthropy is making an investment in cities that are really trying to go big in both of these spaces," Kroner explained. "This will bring dollars and people to support the effort over the next three years."

The award aims to accelerate progress in 25 U.S. cities, including Cincinnati, Dayton, Columbus, Akron, and Cleveland, leveraging federal funding to further boost economically thriving communities. Kroner noted the importance of five Ohio cities in the program, given the state's lack of a climate change plan.

Kroner argued investing in combating climate change now is critical and Ohio aims to bring different segments of the community together along the lines of equality.

"It's hard to see the long-term outcomes, but we're certainly trying to strike at this intersection of the climate crisis and racial and financial empowerment," Kroner emphasized.

More than $400 billion in federal funding is available to local governments through the Bipartisan Infrastructure Law and Inflation Reduction Act for U.S. cities to invest in climate change solutions.


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An environmental justice organization in Wallace, Louisiana, says it won't back down in a fight for the health of its historic community.

The Descendants Project, which focuses on the cultural and historic preservation of enslaved Africans, has been successful in one lawsuit against St. John the Baptist Parish but is heading back to court. The dispute is over zoning ordinances that allow industrial giants to set up shop on the borders of residential areas.

Jo Banner, co-founder and co-director of The Descendants Project, said the battle is far from over.

"The land was reverted back to residential, but unfortunately, our parish administration and Parish Council went right back and switched, zoned the land back to heavy industry," Banner explained.

The land at the center of the conflict is known as the "Greenfield Property," where the company Greenfield Louisiana wants to build a large grain elevator and export terminal. Banner contends the area between New Orleans and Baton Rouge already has an overload of grain and petrochemical industries, and has been nicknamed "Cancer Alley."

Banner noted her organization has now filed another lawsuit against the parish to have the land zoning revert once again to residential. She stressed the tug-of-war shouldn't be happening.

"What's really sad is that residents like ourselves have to go through these measures in order to have safe zoning. If we did not have the support of our legal firms and our advocacy firms, we would not be able to continue the fight," she emphasized.

Banner pointed out residents of St. John the Baptist Parish have some of the highest cancer risk in the country; seven to eight times more than the average American.

"We have men who are getting breast cancer and having to get double mastectomies, children getting cancer at a young age, older people getting cancer when they should be past that point of getting cancer, and also rare forms of cancers," Banner added.

The U.S. Army Corps of Engineers recently recognized the community of Wallace as a National Register Historic District as part of the African American experience in Louisiana.

A judge will decide if the parish will be allowed to eliminate the 2,000-foot distance requirement from residential neighborhoods to allow the grain elevator and export terminal to be built.


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Michigan boasts 11,000 inland lakes, more freshwater shoreline than any other state and tens of thousands of miles of rivers and streams but a new report shows some waters are being contaminated by livestock waste from concentrated animal feeding operations.

The Environmental Law and Policy Center report says the 290 feeding operations in Michigan generate almost 63 million pounds of waste.

Katie Garvey, staff attorney for the Environmental Law and Policy Center and author of the report, said lax regulation leads to more pollution.

"This is just a lot of waste, and it all has to go somewhere," Garvey pointed out. "Unfortunately, because of the way that this industry operates and the state's failure to regulate it properly, that 'somewhere' -- all too often -- is the waters of the state."

Garvey said if the feeding operations were regulated like other industrial operations, they would have to either treat their waste before disposing of it, safely manage it, or produce less waste. Some defenders of the operations say every farm is different and the industry should not be painted with a broad brush.

Sarah Fronczak, environmental management educator for Michigan State University Extension, grew up on a farm and now helps to educate farmers and others on best practices. Fronczak believes the most effective way to keep livestock waste from running off is a tried-and-true method many farmers have gotten away from, the use of plants known as cover crops.

"Usually, when I work with a farmer, I'll say, 'Hey, are you applying your manure to living roots?'" Fronczak noted. "Because if a plant is there to take up the nutrients, it's going to be hard for those nutrients to leave, because the plant's going to be there to take them."

She thinks there are more feeding operation owners adhering to their permit requirements than those who do not. However, Garvey argued there are laws in place wrongfully protecting the large operations.

"Most of these legal protections were not designed for these industrial-scale operations," Garvey stressed. "Therefore, they are basically benefiting from loopholes that are intended to benefit smaller-scale farmers."

Garvey added dozens of actions can reduce agricultural pollution, including tightening and better enforcement of permits, conducting more unannounced audits and inspections, and imposing real consequences on repeat offenders.


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