The Environmental Impact of Salmon Farming

The company Tassal has plans to build an 80 hectare salmon farm with 28 large ocean cages filled with hundreds of thousands of salmon, along the coast of Tasmania.

Many along the coast are concerned about the environmental implications of salmon farming and expanding out into untouched waters. Along Macquarie harbor 21,000 tons of fish feed has ended up in the water in the past year alone, creating massive amounts of waste.

In 2015 80,000 salmon suffocated to death after a sudden drop in oxygen. The fish are often seen in distress not wanting to eat and seeking out more oxygen. Despite problems of overcrowding, the government increased the number of fish in the harbor. All this came after another smaller salmon company wrote a letter to the government stating that Tassal has totally disregarded environmental and fish health.

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Finding healthy sustainable fish can be difficult and expensive. Fish is often contaminated with mercury, microplastics, and other toxins. For this reason, we don’t recommend making fish a big staple in your diet.

ABC News released a video on salmon farming and the environmental concerns with it, which you can watch below.

25 States Promised to Stay in the Paris Agreement, but Most are Behind Schedule for Emissions Cuts

After President Trump pulled out of the Paris Agreement four years ago, 24 states and one territory agreed to follow through with the Paris Agreement, forming the U.S Climate Alliance.

The U.S Climate Alliance has vowed to collectively cut emissions by 26 to 28 percent compared to 2005 levels, by the year 2025.

Despite the promises, and plans to electrify cars, and trucks, add more wind turbines, and reduce the number of pollutants in the air, the majority of the states are behind on their goals.

Some say the states are doing the best they can given policies put in place by the Trump Administration. People are hoping that with the Biden Administration in place, federal and state governments will be able to work together to combat the climate crisis. President Biden has rejoined the Paris Agreement since taking office.

The alliance also notes that its member states have performed well in comparison to the states that didn’t commit to staying in the Paris Agreement. Between 2005 and 2018, states in the alliance cut their CO2 emissions by 14 percent; the other 26 states saw emissions fall by roughly 8 percent. These non-member states — which include oil-rich Texas, West Virginia, and Idaho — account for 60 percent of the country’s CO2 emissions. If they stay on their current course, their emissions could end up increasing over the next five to 10 years, according to a U.S. Climate Alliance report.

Climate change is one of the most pressing matters of today. The health of our planet and our own health are intertwined.

DuPont and Chemours Still Discharging Forever Chemicals

PFAS, commonly known as “forever chemicals” are chemicals that have been linked to cancer and numerous other health problems including thyroid issues, reproductive and developmental issues, and high cholesterol. Forever chemicals are called such because they never break down in the environment.

So why are DuPont and other similar companies still discharging these chemicals from their facilities?

In 2001, it came became well known that a type of PFAS called PFOA, which is used to make Teflon, contaminated the drinking water of 70,000 people near a DuPont factory in West Virginia. Several lawsuits and lots of pressure from the EPA later, DuPont and other companies pledged to phase out PFOA and stop usage after 2015.

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Earlier this month, California representative Harley Rouda, sent a letter to DuPont and Chemours questioning why PFAS were still being discharged at their factories. Despite the known toxicity, there are no federal enforcements on PFAS in drinking water, groundwater, or soils, and only five states have regulations on PFAS. There are also no requirements to clean up PFAS under the Federal Superfund Law.

The continued releases could be an indication that the two companies are still using PFOA, despite their assurances otherwise. If so, that would be a serious breach of public trust. But there are other possible explanations for these discharges. There could be PFOA in products or mixtures used at the facilities. Or “legacy” PFOA remaining in water used at the facilities could be showing up – an alarming reminder of the chemical’s persistence in the environment.

Both companies have publicly said they no longer use PFOA, yet, the EPA’s history shows ongoing discharge from two different facilities. One site in Parkersburg reported 323.5 pounds of PFOA released in 2019.

Forever chemicals produced by companies like DuPont and 3M have been contaminating our earth for decades. Information released has shown that these companies knew the dangers of these chemicals as early as the 1950s. If you have any interest in learning more about forever chemicals, I highly recommend the Mark Ruffalo film “Dark Waters”. Dark Waters follows the true story of a corporate defense attorney who took on an environmental lawsuit against DuPont, exposing the decades of pollution.

EPA Allows the Use of Herbicide in Spite of Recent Court Ruling

The Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) has decided to allow farmers who purchased dicamba-based products to use them this year, despite a June 3rd ruling by the Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals that canceled the product’s approval. Bayer’s XtendiMax, BASF’s Engenia, and Corteva Agriscience’s FeXapan can now be used in specific circumstances after the EPA received feedback from farmers who had already purchased the herbicides.

At the height of the growing season, the Court’s decision has threatened the livelihood of our nation’s farmers and the global food supply…Today’s cancellation and existing stocks order is consistent with EPA’s standard practice following registration invalidation, and is designed to advance compliance, ensure regulatory certainty, and to prevent the misuse of existing stocks.”

Andrew Wheeler, EPA Administrator

According to the order, distribution or sale of the dicamba-based herbicides are still prohibited unless for proper disposal or returns. Those who purchased the herbicides before the June 3rd cancellation are still able to use them. All of use of these systems must cease by July 31st.

The Center for Food Safety and the Center for Biological Diversity (CBD) have already filed a motion asking the Ninth Circuit Court to hold Wheeler and the EPA in contempt for allowing farmers to use the product in defiance of the court’s decision.

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It’s mind-boggling to see the EPA blatantly ignore a court ruling, especially one that provides such important protections for farmers and the environment…We’re asking this court to restore the rule of law at the Trump EPA.”

Stephanie Parent, a senior attorney with the Center for Biological Diversity

U.S. Court Cancels EPA Approval of Nayer’s Dicamba-Based Herbicide

The Ninth U.S. Court of Appeals in San Francisco ruled that the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) broke the law when they approved Bayer’s XtendiMax dicamba-based herbicide system and revoked the approval of that product. They also canceled registrations for the additional dicamba-based herbicides, like BASF’s Engenia and Corteva Agriscience’s FeXapan. Sales of the herbicide have been stopped, and farmers planning to use the system this year will now be unable to.

Dicamba has been the subject of several lawsuits, including a $265 million verdict against Bayer earlier this year, due to the herbicide drifting onto nd damaging other plants when it’s applied. The decision by the federal court determined that the EPA underestimated the extent of dicamba’s drift when they approved Bayer’s (then Monsanto) XtendiMax.

We hold that the EPA substantially understated risks that it acknowledged and failed entirely to acknowledge other risks.”

Judge William Fletcher

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The petition was brought to the Court of Appeals by the National Family Farm Coalition, Center for Food Safety, Center for Biological Diversity, and the Pesticide Action Network North America. The court’s verdict is a big win for environmental groups and farmers with pending cases against Bayer.

This is a massive victory that will protect people and wildlife from uses of a highly toxic pesticide that never should have been approved by the EPA. The fact that the Trump EPA approved these uses of dicamba despite its well-documented record of damaging millions of acres of farmland, tree groves and gardens highlights how tightly the pesticide industry controls EPA’s pesticide-approval process.”

Lori Ann Burd, Center for Biological Diversity

The decision also comes at a time that the current administration is strategically dismantling EPA policies designed to protect citizens and the environment from big business pollution.

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Great Lakes Suffer As EPA Continues to Relax Environmental Regulation and Corporate Non-Compliance Increases

In news that should surprise no one, the Trump Administration’s decision to walk back the Environmental Protection Agency’s (EPA) enforcement of environmental regulations has resulted in a significant increase in Great Lakes pollution from corporations. The Environmental Law and Policy Center (ELPC) recently released a report that examined clean water regulation enforcement and found that there was a decrease in compliance cases initiated, civil penalties for violations, and the staff needed to properly protect the Great Lakes. The EPA has also been subject to significant yearly budget cuts, though the agency isn’t even spending all the money congress has given it for enforcement.

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As enforcement has trended downward, compliance has worsened. In 2019, there were 62% more facilities in significant noncompliance with the Clean Water Act, when compared to the average number of facilities in significant noncompliance between FY (fiscal year) 2012 to FY 2017.

E nvironmental Law and Policy Center

The numbers from FY 2012 to FY 2019 are incredibly upsetting. The number of major facilities in serious non-compliance with environmental regulations has risen from 122 to 211. That increase is the direct inverse of compliance enforcement. As non-compliance has risen, compliance enforcement has floundered.

The number of compliance cases opened has gone from 340 to 208, while case closures have gone from 351 to 205.
The amount of penalties assessed has gone from a high of $1.4 million (2013) to a low of $303,000 (2018).
The compliance enforcement budget has shrunk from $257,000 to $240,000.
The staff assigned to the Great Lakes region has declined from 1,249 employees to 940.

Government officials continually claim companies will follow the environmental regulations on their own, but the numbers are clear. Corporations aren’t following the rules, and they have no incentive to do so as long as it’s cheaper to pay someone to look the other way than it is to do clean up after themselves.

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New Research Shows Air Pollution Linked to Higher CoVID-19 Death Rates

A recent study from Harvard research has shown that air pollution in the US is linked to higher death rates of CoVID-19. Research shows that people who live in counties with high levels of PM 2.5 were 15% more likely to die from CoVID-19.

PM 2.5 is an invisible pollutant made up of microparticles that can seep into the lungs and bloodstream. PM 2.5 comes from burning wood and coal, power plants, and automobile exhaust. It is considered one of the most dangerous invisible pollutants, and high levels have been linked to heart disease, diabetes, and chronic bronchitis as well as other respiratory illnesses. All of these conditions are underlying conditions that can make CoVID-19 fatal. An estimated 78% of US patients in the ICU from CoVID-19 have underlying health conditions.

Polluted air is linked to some of the underlying conditions that make COVID-19 more fatal. Seventy-eight percent of U.S. patients who have ended up in intensive care units from COVID-19 have underlying health conditions such as diabetes, heart disease, or chronic lung disease.

Zuofeng Zhang, professor of epidemiology

A study done in Italy has found similar results, linking air pollution to chronic respiratory conditions. Additionally, research done in 2003 in China showed a correlation between air pollution and death from Severe Acute Respiratory Syndrome (SARS), which is closely related to CoVID-19.

…it is well known that pollution impairs the first line of defense of upper airways, namely cilia (Cao et al., 2020), thus a subject living in an area with high levels of pollutant is more prone to develop chronic respiratory conditions and suitable to any infective agent

Can atmospheric pollution be considered a co-factor in extremely high level of SARS-CoV-2 lethality in Northern Italy?

Despite the links of air pollution to CoVID-19 deaths, both the Trump administration and the EPA have cut back on environmental regulations in the midst of the ongoing pandemic. The EPA has announced that it would be letting factories and power plants, as well as other similar facilities, regulate themselves in the middle of the pandemic. The EPA will no longer issue fines for water, air or hazardous waste violations. Some states have discouraged or banned the use of reusable bags. Other states have passed laws to penalize pipeline protestors. Along with the EPA, the Trump administration has said they will no longer expect corporations to comply with pollution reporting or routine monitoring and that they will not be pursuing penalties for breaking these laws.