EnviroPolitics Blog

In a small Pennsylvania town, a hazardous waste ‘horror story’

An EPA investigation confirmed residents’ worst fears about operations at an industrial landfill. What happens next is all too uncertain

*Government inspectors conducted sampling at the Max Environmental landfill in October 2023 in Yukon, Pa. Credit: Pennsylvania Department of Environmental Protection*

By Kiley Bense, Inside Climate News

Read Part I of this story here.

YUKON, Pa.—When government inspectors arrived at the hazardous waste landfill here in 2023, they found themselves in a barren and alien landscape carved from western Pennsylvania’s green countryside.

As they documented operations at Max Environmental Technologies, they climbed fields of blackened waste and photographed pits, mud, debris, stained walls and unlabeled storage containers. Their images offer a startling—and largely hidden—juxtaposition to the rolling hills, horse paddocks and chicken coops around the 160-acre site. What the inspectors captured confirmed the worst fears of Yukon’s residents, who have blamed the landfill for serious health impacts and called on regulators to intervene for years.

The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency found rusted open containers of waste, clogged pipes and a containment building used to store untreated hazardous waste “in pretty significant disrepair.” They watched as rainwater mixed with that waste and flowed from the damaged building.

“There was a hole in the roof and it was raining during the inspection,” said Jeanna Henry, chief of the air, RCRA and toxics branch in the enforcement and compliance assurance division of the EPA’s Mid-Atlantic Region. RCRA is the Resource Conservation and Recovery Act, which regulates hazardous waste.

The landfill accepts industrial waste like contaminated soils, acids and dust, as well as waste generated by the oil and gas industry that contains heavy metals and radioactive materials. Pennsylvania is the country’s second-largest producer of natural gas, and much of the industry’s solid waste ends up at landfills such as this one.

Read the full story here

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Why Did the Seal Cross the Road? To Get to Connecticut’s Pizza Haven.

The police in New Haven, Conn., found a young seal wandering the streets and aided in its rescue. “Maybe we should just start keeping mackerel in the cruisers,” one officer suggested.

A seal on the asphalt in a parking spot next to a police vehicle. — *A baby seal who wandered around New Haven, Conn. He will be named by aquarium workers once they assess his personality. Credit…New Haven Police Department*

By Christine Hauser, New York Times

It was an unusual 911 call on a Sunday afternoon in New Haven, Conn. At about 2:30 p.m., in a neighborhood full of auto shops, an IKEA and renowned pizzerias, someone reported that a seal was “running back and forth” near a bridge underpass.

When officers from the New Haven Police Department responded, there was the seal, flat on its stomach on a cold, snow-encrusted street in the city’s industrial zone.

No one knows how the seal, a gray male only a few weeks old, wandered so far from its natural ocean habitat. But in a city proud of its pizza scene, some joked it might have been drawn to the specialty slices made in coal-fired ovens. There is even a local specialty that would probably get its seal of approval.

“It was looking for clam pizza,” said Officer Christian Bruckhart, a spokesman for the New Haven Police Department.

“We deal with some weird stuff all the time, but this is certainly out of the ordinary even for us,” he said. “Maybe we should just start keeping mackerel in the cruisers.”

Though the pizza explanation is amusing, there’s a more likely reason for the seal’s appearance in the urban world. This is the start of “seal season,” explained Allison Tuttle, the chief zoological officer at Mystic Aquarium in Mystic, Conn., a town with its own pizza lore because of the Julia Roberts movie “Mystic Pizza.”

Read more about seal season here

Why Did the Seal Cross the Road? To Get to Connecticut’s Pizza Haven. Read More »

Could California join some nations in taking over its refineries? Yes.

The Phillips 66 refinery in Wilmington is due to close by year’s end.
(Carolyn Cole / Los Angeles Times)

By Russ Mitchel, Staff Writer, Los Angeles Times

Russia. China. Venezuela. Iran. More than a dozen countries make gasoline at state-owned refineries.

Could California be next on the list?

California policymakers are considering state ownership of one or more oil refineries, one item on a list of options presented by the California Energy Commission to ensure steady gas supplies as oil companies pull back from the refinery business in the state.

“The state recognizes that they’re on a pathway to more refinery closures,” said Skip York, chief energy strategist at energy consultant Turner Mason & Co. The risk to consumers and the state’s economy, he said, is gasoline supply disappearing faster than consumer demand, resulting in fuel shortages, higher prices and severe logistical challenges.

Read the full story here

Could California join some nations in taking over its refineries? Yes. Read More »

NJ bill establishing onsite housing for farmworkers advances

From Assembly Repblican News

Assemblyman Alex Sauickie’s bill permitting farmworkers to live onsite was passed by the Assembly Labor Committee on Thursday.

The bill (A4501) updates New Jersey’s Right to Farm Act to include the right to house workers on commercial farms, protecting landowners from public or private nuisance lawsuits.

“This bill recognizes that farmworkers often need to respond quickly to emergencies that could threaten crops or livestock,” said Sauickie (R-Ocean).

Under the bill, the amount of onsite housing must correlate to the labor needed to operate the farm. It would apply to full-time workers who are not family members of the landowners and operators. The employees could not be charged rent.

“Equine farm employees already have this right, so this bill brings consistency to the law and provides clarity for municipalities and landowners,” Sauickie added.

In New Jersey, full-time equine farm employees are allowed to reside within the same building or facility where the horses are kept or boarded.

The bill passed the Senate in January and goes to the Speaker for further consideration.

NJ bill establishing onsite housing for farmworkers advances Read More »

Trump fires the country’s senior military officer

President Trump fired the Joint Chiefs chairman, a role that traditionally remains in place as administrations change. Gen. Charles Q. Brown Jr., a four-star fighter pilot, was only the second African American to hold the job.

Trump fires the country’s senior military officer Read More »

Judge vacates upcoming Eric Adams corruption trial, but…

New York City Mayor Eric Adams arrives to court on February 19 in New York.
Julia Demaree Nikhinson/AP

By Lauren del Valle, CNN

A federal judge has vacated the upcoming trial date for New York City Mayor Eric Adams, but declined to immediately dismiss the charges all together in a case that has roiled the Justice Department.

Judge Dale Ho, instead, is appointing conservative attorney Paul Clement to present arguments challenging the Justice Department’s decision to drop charges against Adams and as he explores what his options are and if a dismissal is in the public interest.

The DOJ move to end the case against Adams has prompted an exodus of prosecutors who disagreed with the decision. Eight federal prosecutors, including the interim US attorney for the Southern District of New York, have resigned in protest. Four deputy mayors have departed City Hall as well.

Adams, who consented in writing to the deal to drop the charges, has denied any quid pro quo with the Trump administration for dropping the charges of bribery, corruption, wire fraud and soliciting and accepting donations from foreign nationals in exchange for boosting President Donald Trump’s immigration agenda.

Read the full story here

Judge vacates upcoming Eric Adams corruption trial, but… Read More »

In a small Pennsylvania town, a hazardous waste ‘horror story’

An EPA investigation confirmed residents’ worst fears about operations at an industrial landfill. What happens next is all too uncertain

Why Did the Seal Cross the Road? To Get to Connecticut’s Pizza Haven.

The police in New Haven, Conn., found a young seal wandering the streets and aided in its rescue. “Maybe we should just start keeping mackerel in the cruisers,” one officer suggested.

Could California join some nations in taking over its refineries? Yes.

NJ bill establishing onsite housing for farmworkers advances

Trump fires the country’s senior military officer

Judge vacates upcoming Eric Adams corruption trial, but…

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