[CPEO-BIF] "The citizen regulators taking on big polluters when the EPA won’t"

[Lenny Siegel <LSiegel@cpeo.org>]

The citizen regulators taking on big polluters when the EPA won’t
As environmental agencies reel from a Republican-led assault on regulations, local activists are taking up the fight

By Tom Perkins
Guardian
March 19, 2021

The headaches, asthma attacks and serious nosebleeds that plagued Diego Mayens as a child in West Long Beach, California were all triggered by one basic activity – playing outdoors. He suspects the foul emissions from nearby refineries and other heavy industry were behind his problems.

“It had to do a lot with the air quality in the area,” Mayens told the Guardian. “I feel particularly bad seeing kids playing outside and people who live here walking around who might not know what they’re breathing in.”

Among the toxins hanging in the air was benzene, a dangerous carcinogen that a 2017 California investigation found two nearby Phillips 66 refineries were emitting levels over 200 times higher than the company had reported. In the investigation’s wake, residents expected swift and forceful action from regulators at the South Coast Air Quality Management District, but that never happened.

…

For the entire article, see
https://amp.theguardian.com/environment/2021/mar/19/citizen-regulators-epa-pollution-environment

—

Lenny Siegel
Executive Director
Center for Public Environmental Oversight
A project of the Pacific Studies Center
LSiegel@cpeo.org
P.O. Box 998, Mountain View, CA 94042
Voice/Fax: 650-961-8918
http://www.cpeo.org

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