New Orleans city officials allowed developers to build homes on land contaminated with chemicals linked to cancer. They didn’t tell the people who moved in.
The Environmental Protection Agency on Wednesday will announce stepped-up enforcement and monitoring to help disadvantaged communities struggling with polluted air and water.
The EPA announced a raft of targeted actions and specific reforms including stepped-up air monitoring and scrutiny of industrial polluters in the wake of ProPublica’s investigation into toxic hot spots.
Raw throats, burning eyes, strong acid smells. Air monitoring that showed chemicals linked to leukemia. Barbara Weckesser and her neighbors told regulators that air pollution was making them sick. The law let them ignore her.
ProPublica found more than 1,000 toxic air hot spots across the country, and determined Black residents were disproportionately at risk. Environmental experts called the EPA’s response to our investigation historic and a “radical change in tone.”
