Latest news with #U.S.EnvironmentalProtectionAgency
Chicago Tribune
13 hours ago
- General
- Chicago Tribune
EPA plans to test 250 homes near Federated Metals this summer
The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency said it plans to sample just over 250 homes for toxic soil, including lead, this summer primarily in Whiting-Robertsdale near the former Federated Metals property. It comes more than a year after the agency added it as a Superfund site in late 2023, declaring it one of the country's most polluted properties — nearly 90 years after the industrial site first opened, according to the EPA. Homeowners have to sign up with the EPA, before their yards can be tested on a first-come, first-served basis. EPA maps of the area — littered with green dots — note several yards tested before have shown high levels of lead or arsenic. 'It's upsetting,' said Julian De Leon, who grew up in Whiting and whose parents still live on Birch Avenue. 'It's dangerous and harmful. I've got kids, so I definitely don't approve of (the lead) and if it is here, we should move out (as soon as possible).' The 30-year-old told the Post-Tribune Friday that he doesn't know if his parents have received communication about the lead testing, and he didn't know about it. De Leon worries about families with kids near the Superfund site. 'It's upsetting,' he said. 'It's something we should be on top of.' Nearly 10,000 people live within a mile of the former smelter in Whiting and the Robertsdale neighborhood of Hammond. The site is near a bike trail, parks, a church and Calumet College of St. Joseph. Multiple residents near New York Avenue in Whiting did not know about the EPA's plans to test the area for toxic soil. David Pustek, a New York Avenue resident, said he hasn't received communication about testing from the EPA or city. Pustek's property was tested about three years ago when new development came to the area, he said, including with private testing he had done. Lead was found in the soil, Pusek said, but he doesn't think it was a high amount. 'The other ones came up negative,' Pusek said, 'but I'm sure they would have said that anyway.' Another Whiting resident, John Milch, said he also didn't know about the area's lead testing. Milch, 54, said he's lived in Whiting his entire life, and he's in good health. 'I think it's important,' Milch said about lead testing. 'People like me should know more about it. … When you live here, you see (industry), but you don't think much of it.' The EPA did not respond to a request for an interview. Several agency representatives appeared to be on vacation. Whiting Mayor Steve Spebar could not be reached. His office was closed Thursday and Friday. Critics, including David Dabertin, a Hammond lawyer and former regional director of the Indiana Department of Environmental Management, have said that state and federal regulators failed generations of people who lived near the former facility. 'I would have had (your yard) sampled years ago,' he said Thursday. 'I wouldn't wait for the U.S. EPA. It's horrible.' By contrast, he praised Hammond's approach to take federal money in recent years to remediate nearly 70 yards. It was 'unique and very admirable,' he said. 'They said, 'We're not going to wait.'' Hammond Mayor Tom McDermott 'and I don't see eye-to-eye on anything,' Dabertin said. 'Time has born that out,' he said of the city's actions. 'Those people got those yards cleaned up.' Everyone else going to the EPA 'is going to be waiting a long time.' Dabertin previously told the Post-Tribune that he confronted Gov. Eric Holcomb in April 2018 and asked why federal and state officials then allowed other lead-processing companies to operate on the same site. McDermott said by text Friday that the city's efforts were '98%' if not completely done. However, the EPA's part could likely take 'a decade or longer.' Located at 2230 Indianapolis Boulevard, Federated Metals was a metal smelting, refining, recovering and recycling facility for nearly 50 years along George Lake, which borders the Robertsdale neighborhood of Hammond and Whiting. Originally owned and operated by Federated Metals Corp. (FMC) the facility was sold in 1985 to HBR Partnership and was used by multiple businesses, including Northern Indiana Metals and Whiting Metals, before shutting down permanently in 2020. Smelter operations like Federated Metals emitted lead, arsenic and other heavy metals from their buildings and waste piles, the EPA said. Pollution at the site has long been a concern of the EPA. In 1992, FMC and its parent corporation, ASARCO, entered into a federal consent decree to settle a lawsuit brought by the agency stemming from alleged violations of environmental regulations. The company agreed to construct a landfill on the site and cover lead-contaminated soil with trees. Soil samples taken by the EPA from 2016 to 2018 found 163 residential yards had soil lead levels above 400 parts per million, the level at which the agency recommends action — or soil removal. In recent years, the agency has found highly toxic properties with lead levels at least three times over that benchmark. In 2018 and 2019, the EPA removed contaminated soil from 33 residential properties in Whiting and Hammond that had lead levels exceeding 1,200 parts per million or were home to pregnant women or children under 7. The city of Hammond launched its own soil removal project in 2021, funded with $5 million from the city's American Rescue Plan Act funds, and had cleaned up 69 properties by 2024, according to the EPA. The agency also said that it needs public input for 155 properties already tested that have high lead levels in the soil. More information is expected to be released later this summer. Lead is unsafe at any level, according to the EPA and the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. Ingesting tiny concentrations can permanently damage the developing brains of children and contribute to heart disease, kidney failure and other health problems later in life. Long-term exposure to arsenic could lead to severe illness, including cancer. It's also linked to skin lesions, high blood pressure and elevated risk for diabetes.
Yahoo
2 days ago
- Business
- Yahoo
Jury awards man millions after losing fingers when refrigerant explodes in Kroger store
An Michigan jury awarded an HVAC technician more than $75 million in a lawsuit against Kroger after he suffered severe chemical injuries from defective refrigerant that exploded in the store, requiring complete or partial amputations of his fingers. Attorney Jon Marko indicated in a release that his client, Brian Mierendorf, tried to protect nearby customers by trying to stop the refrigerant during the incident, which occurred in 2022, according to the complaint filed in the county's circuit court. Mierendorf's hands, according to Marko's release, were injected with toxic R-22 refrigerant, which has been phased out by the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency. Mierendorf has since undergone 25 surgeries. The award for Mierendorf and his wife, Heather, happened June 17 in what Marko called a "record-breaking verdict" against Kroger Co. of Michigan. The jury awarded the couple economic and noneconomic losses from the time of the incident through years into the future, according to the verdict form. "Kroger had a ticking time bomb in its store at Bloomfield Township, waiting to blow. Unfortunately, it blew up on Brian and he lost his hands trying to save other people in the store from toxic chemicals being sprayed out in the middle of the day in front of the meat department," Marko said in a news release. "At trial, Kroger's defense was to blame Brian for his heroic actions. The verdict sends a clear message to Kroger that Brian's actions should be commended, and that Brian literally gave up his hands in the line of duty at the expense of himself and his family is priceless." Messages were left for an attorney representing Kroger as well as a Kroger spokesperson, both of whom could not be immediately reached for comment June 18. Marko's release indicated this is thought to be the largest premises liability verdict in Michigan. The complaint was filed in February 2024 on behalf of Mierendorf, who lives in Macomb County. The incident occurred at Kroger, 3600 West Maple Road, in Bloomfield Hills, on Feb. 1, 2022. Mierendorf was requested to come to the property to perform work on refrigeration lines within the store, according to the lawsuit complaint. While performing maintenance, it indicated, a refrigeration line began spraying liquid refrigerant into the store. There was no shutoff valve nearby, it stated, and Mierendorf tried to cap the line, but the pressure was too high and refrigerant was pouring out at too high of a volume. More: Investigation finds Kroger overcharged customers for sale items More: Michigan mom, son awarded $120M in malpractice lawsuit over delayed C-section Mierendorf's left hand froze to the refrigeration line while he was trying to cap it. He tried to break free from the line, but could not, according to the complaint. "The refrigerant was pouring out at such a rate that Plaintiff could barely breath(e) as he attempted to break his hand free from the pipe," it read. "Ultimately, Plaintiff was able to break free from the pipe but sustained serious and grievous injuries." Those injuries, the complaint indicates, include the loss of the majority of his fingers. Mierendorf suffered severe chemical burns and the amputation and partial amputation of multiple fingers on both of his hands. More: Overcharged on a product? In Michigan consumers are owed compensation The complaint indicated Kroger was in control of the property and the refrigeration line; failed to warn Mierendorf of the "dangerous condition;" failed to inspect its refrigeration lines before requesting maintenance; failed to install shutoff valves within reasonable distances of areas where the maintenance was to be performed, and failed to properly train, supervise, hire and retain employees with regard to maintenance and work performed on the refrigeration system. In his release, Marko indicated Kroger did not produce any maintenance, repair or inspection records for the subject refrigeration system at trial, despite a legal obligation to do so, and produced only a partial incident report filled out over two years after the incident occurred. Federal law and local policies required Kroger to document all of these, it indicated. Contact Christina Hall: chall@ Follow her on X, formerly Twitter: @challreporter. Support local journalism. Subscribe to the Free Press. Submit a letter to the editor at This article originally appeared on Cincinnati Enquirer: Jury awards man millions after losing fingers in Kroger store incident
Yahoo
2 days ago
- Yahoo
Michigan jury awards over $75M to man who lost fingers in Kroger chemical explosion
DETROIT — A Michigan jury awarded more than $75 million in damages to an HVAC technician who suffered severe chemical injuries and lost most of his fingers after defective refrigerant exploded in a Kroger store in 2022, his attorney announced on June 17. In an attempt to protect nearby customers, Brian Mierendorf was seriously injured when he tried to stop the refrigerant during the incident, his attorney Jon Marko said in a news release. The incident occurred in February 2022 at a Kroger store in Bloomfield Hills, a northern suburb of Detroit, according to a complaint filed in Oakland County Circuit Court. The explosion released a toxic chemical — called R-22 — which is a type of refrigerant that was used in various applications, including residential air conditioning systems, according to the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency. The agency began phasing out the chemical in 2010, and then banned its production and import in 2020, according to manufacturing company Trane. Mierendorf's hands were injected with toxic R-22 refrigerant, the news release states. Since February 2022, Mierendorf has undergone 25 surgeries to try and save his hands, Marko said in the release. An Oakland County jury awarded Mierendorf and his wife, Heather, on June 17 in what Marko called a "record-breaking verdict" against Kroger Co. of Michigan. The jury awarded the couple economic and non-economic losses from the time of the incident through the years into the future, according to the verdict form. "Kroger had a ticking time bomb in its store at Bloomfield Township, waiting to blow. Unfortunately, it blew up on Brian, and he lost his hands trying to save other people in the store from toxic chemicals being sprayed out in the middle of the day in front of the meat department," Marko said in the release. "At trial, Kroger's defense was to blame Brian for his heroic actions. The verdict sends a clear message to Kroger that Brian's actions should be commended, and that Brian literally gave up his hands in the line of duty at the expense of himself and his family is priceless," Marko added. An attorney representing Kroger and a company spokesperson did not immediately respond to the Detroit Free Press', part of the USA TODAY Network, requests for comment on June 18. Bed bug lawsuit: 2 hotel guests in California awarded $2 million Marko indicated in the release that the jury's award is believed to be the largest premises liability verdict in Michigan. The incident occurred on Feb. 1, 2022, after Mierendorf was requested to come to the Kroger store to perform work on refrigeration lines within the property, according to the complaint. The complaint was filed in February 2024 on behalf of Mierendorf, who lives in nearby Macomb County. While performing maintenance, a refrigeration line began spraying liquid refrigerant into the store, the complaint states. There was no shutoff valve nearby, and Mierendorf tried to cap the line, but the pressure was too high and refrigerant was pouring out at a high volume, according to the complaint. Mierendorf's left hand froze to the refrigeration line while he was trying to cap it, the complaint states. He tried to break free from the line, but could not. "The refrigerant was pouring out at such a rate that Plaintiff could barely breath(e) as he attempted to break his hand free from the pipe," the complaint reads. "Ultimately, Plaintiff was able to break free from the pipe but sustained serious and grievous injuries." Those injuries include the loss of the majority of his fingers, according to the complaint. Mierendorf suffered severe chemical burns and the amputation and partial amputation of multiple fingers on both of his hands. The complaint indicated Kroger was in control of the property and the refrigeration line. It accused the company of: Failing to warn Mierendorf of the "dangerous condition." Failing to inspect its refrigeration lines before requesting maintenance. Failing to install shutoff valves within reasonable distances of areas where the maintenance was to be performed. Failing to properly train, supervise, hire, and retain employees with regard to maintenance and work performed on the refrigeration system. In the release, Marko said Kroger did not produce any maintenance, repair, or inspection records for the subject refrigeration system at trial — despite a legal obligation to do so — and produced only a partial incident report filled out over two years after the incident occurred. Federal law and local policies required Kroger to document all of these, it indicated. Mike Lindell verdict: MyPillow founder defamed former voting equipment company boss Contributing: Thao Nguyen, USA TODAY This article originally appeared on Detroit Free Press: Michigan jury awards over $75M after man loses fingers in Kroger store
Yahoo
7 days ago
- Automotive
- Yahoo
Trump Just Revoked California's EV Rules. How Much Is California To Blame?
President Donald Trump just revoked California's permission to enforce its nation-leading clean-car rules — and Mary Nichols understands why. "No one likes being regulated," she told me ahead of Thursday's Oval Office signing ceremony. Nichols knows that better than almost anyone. As head of California's Air Resources Board for 17 years, she brought the world's biggest automakers to heel using the state's unique authority to go further than the federal government in setting vehicle emissions standards. It's those same automakers who lobbied Trump to "rescue the U.S. auto industry from destruction by terminating California's electric vehicle mandate once and for all," as Trump put it Thursday. It didn't have to get to this point. California officials had been in talks with automakers prior to the November election about how to keep them on board, but the state overplayed its hand, Nichols said. "Many people were acting on the assumption that it was going to be the Democrats continuing in power," she said. "So the state felt like they had all the cards in their hand, and then after the election, it was pretty hard to reset the conversation." To hear Nichols tell it, California may have gone too far this time in nudging the industry to ever-higher sales of zero-emission vehicles. The rules would have required automakers to hit increasing percentages — 35 percent by model year 2026 and 68 percent by model year 2030 — before reaching 100 percent of new-car sales in 2035. Maybe that would have worked if it were just about California. But a dozen other states are signed on to California's targets, and they have been slower and less generous with incentives and EV charging infrastructure. Where California has more than a quarter of its new car sales coming from EVs, New Jersey is at 15 percent, and New York is under 12 percent, according to the industry's latest figures. "They were definitely having issues with the California program because they didn't think they could meet the sales numbers in the mandate, especially [Gov. Gavin] Newsom's target of nothing but ZEVs with a deadline attached to it," Nichols said. "That was scary, and even the interim targets were going to be hard to meet." The pendulum has swung against California before: The George W. Bush administration was the first to attempt to deny California's permission from the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency to require automakers to sell increasing percentages of zero-emission vehicles, and Trump went further in his first term by attempting to revoke the state's already-issued authority. But Republicans had never resorted to doing it through Congress, via an untested maneuver that congressional watchdogs have warned is likely illegal but that still drew 35 Democratic votes in the House and one in the Senate (Sen. Elissa Slotkin (D-Mich.), in the tradition of Detroit's John Dingell). It's a far cry from the bipartisan consensus that reigned when President Richard Nixon famously signed the Clean Air Act, which set federal air pollution levels for the first time but gave California permission to continue going further, owing to its decade-plus of vehicle emissions rules aimed at the smoggy Los Angeles basin. The automakers have been steadily lobbying against the rules since then, with a brief ceasefire from 2009-16, when ten automakers and the United Auto Workers signed a nonaggression pact in President Barack Obama's Rose Garden with California Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger and the EPA. That it happened at the same time that the federal government was taking an equity stake in General Motors was no coincidence, said Nichols, who helped broker the pact. "They saved them from bankruptcy," she said. California has less recourse this time around. Where Newsom signed deals in 2019 with Ford, Volkswagen, Honda, BMW and Volvo to abide by the state's rules even in the event of federal cancellation, he now only has Stellantis, which signed a separate agreement last year that goes through model year 2030. And several of the state's allies are peeling off. California had 12 other states signed on to follow its lead as of last year, but it now has 10, after Republican-led Virginia dropped out and Vermont delayed enforcement by 19 months. And Democrats are getting cold feet, too: Maryland Gov. Wes Moore signed an executive order in April delaying enforcement, and Democratic lawmakers in New York introduced a bill this year to delay their participation by two years. (California and the other 10 states immediately sued Thursday to preserve the emissions standards.) "If it was only California, I think [automakers] wouldn't have been as eager to jump in on the federal level and work with the Republicans, but it's the fact it's the other states that had the California standards that were killing them, especially New York," Nichols said. That echoes the automakers' argument. "The problem really isn't California," John Bozzella, CEO of the Alliance for Automotive Innovation, said in a statement after the Senate's vote last month to overturn the rules. "It's the 11 states that adopted California's rules without the same level of readiness for EV sales requirements of this magnitude."
Politico
7 days ago
- Automotive
- Politico
Trump Just Revoked California's EV Rules. How Much Is California To Blame?
President Donald Trump just revoked California's permission to enforce its nation-leading clean-car rules — and Mary Nichols understands why. 'No one likes being regulated,' she told me ahead of Thursday's Oval Office signing ceremony. Nichols knows that better than almost anyone. As head of California's Air Resources Board for 17 years, she brought the world's biggest automakers to heel using the state's unique authority to go further than the federal government in setting vehicle emissions standards. It's those same automakers who lobbied Trump to 'rescue the U.S. auto industry from destruction by terminating California's electric vehicle mandate once and for all,' as Trump put it Thursday. It didn't have to get to this point. California officials had been in talks with automakers prior to the November election about how to keep them on board, but the state overplayed its hand, Nichols said. 'Many people were acting on the assumption that it was going to be the Democrats continuing in power,' she said. 'So the state felt like they had all the cards in their hand, and then after the election, it was pretty hard to reset the conversation.' To hear Nichols tell it, California may have gone too far this time in nudging the industry to ever-higher sales of zero-emission vehicles. The rules would have required automakers to hit increasing percentages — 35 percent by model year 2026 and 68 percent by model year 2030 — before reaching 100 percent of new-car sales in 2035. Maybe that would have worked if it were just about California. But a dozen other states are signed on to California's targets, and they have been slower and less generous with incentives and EV charging infrastructure. Where California has more than a quarter of its new car sales coming from EVs, New Jersey is at 15 percent, and New York is under 12 percent, according to the industry's latest figures. 'They were definitely having issues with the California program because they didn't think they could meet the sales numbers in the mandate, especially [Gov. Gavin] Newsom's target of nothing but ZEVs with a deadline attached to it,' Nichols said. 'That was scary, and even the interim targets were going to be hard to meet.' The pendulum has swung against California before: The George W. Bush administration was the first to attempt to deny California's permission from the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency to require automakers to sell increasing percentages of zero-emission vehicles, and Trump went further in his first term by attempting to revoke the state's already-issued authority. But Republicans had never resorted to doing it through Congress, via an untested maneuver that congressional watchdogs have warned is likely illegal but that still drew 35 Democratic votes in the House and one in the Senate (Sen. Elissa Slotkin (D-Mich.), in the tradition of Detroit's John Dingell). It's a far cry from the bipartisan consensus that reigned when President Richard Nixon famously signed the Clean Air Act, which set federal air pollution levels for the first time but gave California permission to continue going further, owing to its decade-plus of vehicle emissions rules aimed at the smoggy Los Angeles basin. The automakers have been steadily lobbying against the rules since then, with a brief ceasefire from 2009-16, when ten automakers and the United Auto Workers signed a nonaggression pact in President Barack Obama's Rose Garden with California Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger and the EPA. That it happened at the same time that the federal government was taking an equity stake in General Motors was no coincidence, said Nichols, who helped broker the pact. 'They saved them from bankruptcy,' she said. California has less recourse this time around. Where Newsom signed deals in 2019 with Ford, Volkswagen, Honda, BMW and Volvo to abide by the state's rules even in the event of federal cancellation, he now only has Stellantis, which signed a separate agreement last year that goes through model year 2030. And several of the state's allies are peeling off. California had 12 other states signed on to follow its lead as of last year, but it now has 10, after Republican-led Virginia dropped out and Vermont delayed enforcement by 19 months. And Democrats are getting cold feet, too: Maryland Gov. Wes Moore signed an executive order in April delaying enforcement, and Democratic lawmakers in New York introduced a bill this year to delay their participation by two years. (California and the other 10 states immediately sued Thursday to preserve the emissions standards.) 'If it was only California, I think [automakers] wouldn't have been as eager to jump in on the federal level and work with the Republicans, but it's the fact it's the other states that had the California standards that were killing them, especially New York,' Nichols said. That echoes the automakers' argument. 'The problem really isn't California,' John Bozzella, CEO of the Alliance for Automotive Innovation, said in a statement after the Senate's vote last month to overturn the rules. 'It's the 11 states that adopted California's rules without the same level of readiness for EV sales requirements of this magnitude.'
