LaDuke: Gov.
The spin continues in North Dakota’s corporate-fed media.
Let’s be honest, North Dakota does not care about garbage or pollution.
Morton County sprayed a number of unknown toxins from antifreeze-laden water cannons to mace onto the Water Protectors and into the river.
Rancher David Meyers purchased 40,000 pounds of Rozol, a prairie dog poison, to be used on land that adjoins the Missouri River.
Six months after he poisoned the land, Meyer sold the Cannonball Ranch to Energy Transfer Partners for a reported $18 million.
Since Jan. 2016, more than 100,900 gallons of crude oil, waste oil, bio solids, natural gas and brine were spilled in North Dakota and surrounding areas, according to the North Dakota Department of Health records.
" ‘Not everyone gets fined,’ Suess said.
So, let’s talk about garbage, North Dakota.
I can say that Burgum has a lot of work to do to clean up the garbage of the state.

By Timothy Gardner and Valerie Volcovici WASHINGTON (Reuters) – The White House is proposing to slash a quarter of the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency’s budget, targeting climate-change programs and those designed to prevent air and water pollution like lead contamination, a source with direct knowledge of the proposal said on Thursday.
President Donald Trump has long signaled his intention to reverse former Democratic President Barack Obama’s climate-change initiatives.
The agency did not immediately respond to a request for comment on the budget proposal or its counter proposal.
State grants for lead cleanup, for example, would be cut 30 percent to $9.8 million.
Grants to help native tribes combat pollution would be cut 30 percent to $45.8 million.
An EPA climate protection program on cutting emissions of greenhouse gases like methane that contribute to global warming would be cut 70 percent to $29 million.
The proposal would cut funding for the brownfields industrial site cleanup program by 42 percent to $14.7 million.
The Republican-led Congress would have to approve any EPA cuts.
Congress would be unlikely to approve a proposal to cut all staff in a diesel emissions program, for example.
“I want you to know that with the White House and also with Congress, I am communicating a message that the brownfields program, the Superfund program and the water infrastructure grants and state revolving funds are essential to protect,” he said.

NBC Bay Area The latest data from California’s Water Resources Control Board show 700,000 Californians are currently being exposed to contaminated water at home or at school.
In addition to those with contaminated water, another 3,511 California households reported having wells that are still dry according to state data released in January, 2017.
“We found that the majority of those drought impacted public water systems were serving disadvantaged communities.” Five years ago Jerry Brown signed legislation making California the first state in the nation to declare that access to clean, safe drinking water is a fundamental human right.
“They’re all in crisis,” Firestone said.
Having toxic water coming out of your tap, not being able to access water in schools, this is really basic.” State data shows 292 different California water systems currently contain levels of contaminants so high they violate safe drinking water standards.
“I think a lot of people forget that.” Tulare County resident Esperanza Venegas remembers when the well providing water for her family dried up last year.
In unincorporated East Porterville, thousands of residents have had no running water for nearly three years.
Though local and state officials recently began connecting some East Porterville residents to a nearby public water system, there are about 800 eligible homes still waiting to be hooked up.
"The public water systems have a lot of local control over the sources of water and how they manage it.
“We’ve got to be thinking about it if our goal is to get clean, safe and affordable drinking water to all Californians.” None of these efforts can come fast enough for residents struggling to get by with dry taps or contaminated water.

The House voted 63-37 to approve the legislation.
House Bill 2506 would change the type of stream flow measurements the state Department of Environmental Protection uses when it sets the amount of pollution that chemical plants, factories and other industrial facilities can routinely discharge into the state’s waterways.
Under the bill, being pushed by the West Virginia Manufacturers Association, DEP would switch from using a low-flow figure for streams to an average-flow figure, called “harmonic mean.” The change would not increase the state’s actual in-stream pollution limits, but would increase the discharges that chemical plants and other industrial sites are allowed under DEP-approved permits.
“If I believed it was going to harm the water quality of the state of West Virginia, I would be against it.
“So, the overall water quality of the body of water doesn’t change with this bill.” It’s correct that the bill doesn’t specifically change the state’s numeric water quality limits for in-stream pollution.
But by changing the flow measurements used for setting the pollution any particular facility can discharge, the legislation would increase the amount of pollution those facilities can discharge, critics of the bill noted.
“The water standards are not changed,” Lane said.
Neither DEP nor lawmakers have offered any detailed analysis of exactly how the bill would increase pollution allowed in the state’s rivers and streams, or how such increase might affect public health.
I believe we’re better than that.” Another opponent of the bill, Delegate Barbara Fleischauer, D-Monongalia, strongly disputed suggestions from some supporters that because the bill regulates routine pollution discharges and not one-time leaks like the one in January 2014 at Freedom Industries, the Kanawha Valley water crisis has nothing to do with the bill.
Fleischauer said the water crisis should have shown lawmakers why tough protections for drinking water sources are important.

Editorial: We need federal action to stop water pollution.
What started with some alarming news about the tainted water supply for the City of Newburgh last year has inspired action at the local and state levels.
Results from the first 370 people tested show a middle level of 16 parts per billion, three times higher than the national figure of 5.2.
More will need to have their blood tested and more work needs to be done to understand the immediate and long-term effects of this increased level and the best options for treatment.
The chemicals in these streams and lakes, in these and many other wells and water supplies all point directly toward the Stewart Air National Guard Base.
Last March, state investigators found alarmingly high levels of PFOS coming from Recreation Pond, the off-base retention pond used by Stewart from which water flowed into nearby streams, eventually ending up in the Newburgh water supply.
Other testing found a variety of levels of contamination in nearby wells, showing that the chemicals had gone into the aquifer and were not contained in surface water.
It has only recently come up with a plan to investigate the source of pollution around the base.
As Sen. Charles Schumer, the DEC and the leaders of Riverkeeper have demanded, the Air National Guard needs to immediately stop continued discharges of contaminated water into Silver Stream.
"The Department of Defense can stop this pollution, and it must do so without further delay," said Dan Shapley, director of Riverkeeper’s water quality program.

`Zero chance´ of water contamination, says boss of frack site energy firm.
Third Energy, the UK firm that last year secured permission to use an existing gas well near the North Yorkshire village of Kirby Misperton to run test fracks almost two miles underground, said of demonstrators: “We respect their right to protest but they should respect our right to operate.” The company says it will begin fracking at its KM8 well later this year and director of operations John Dewar is confident he can counter the continuing criticisms of the controversial technique.
But campaigners opposed to Third Energy’s plans for KM8 reacted angrily to Mr Dewar’s insistence that the well was drilled without local disruption and that the fracking operation will continue to have minimal impact.
Mr Dewar defended his firm’s actions standing next to the head of the KM8 well – a small, red valve mechanism looking not much bigger than a washing machine.
The well was sunk for conventional gas extraction in 2013.
Asked what his message was to protesters, some of whom have set up an anti-fracking camp nearby, he said: “My message to them is that, if they’re genuinely concerned, then come and see us, talk to us.
We respect their right to protest but they should respect our right to operate.” He said: “We were able to drill the well without causing any disruption.
“On this particular site there is absolutely zero chance, and I say zero carefully, of contamination,” he said.
Mr Dewar said the bore hole will be fully sealed from the surrounding rock and the aquifer, which is not used for drinking water extraction in the area – is much shallower and the rocks used for the test fracks thousands of feet below.
“He visited a lady who was kept awake all night by the 24/7 drilling and promised double glazing and a job for her husband, this is all on the public record of the planning committee meeting.

Honeywell will have to face class claims for negligence, nuisance, trespass and medical monitoring in a New York water contamination case, the Northern District of New York ruled Feb. 6 ( Baker v. Saint-Gobain Performance Plastics Corp. , 2017 BL 34914, N.D.N.Y., No.
The ruling came in closely-watched litigation over pervasive PFOA contamination in the town’s water supply, and the U.S. District Court for the Northern District of New York wrestled with unsettled issues of New York tort law in its decision.
“This is a wonderful decision for the people of Hoosick Falls, who may now proceed with their lawsuit,” Robin Greenwald, of Weitz & Luxenberg in New York City told Bloomberg BNA Feb. 7.
“The court also invited the parties to appeal the decision, and we are presently considering our appellate options,” Pokedoff said in an e-mail.
Private water well owners also have a possessory interest in wells harmed by PFOA trespasses, and private nuisance claims may proceed because of the “special loss” well owners suffer from the installation of monitoring equipment, the court said.
It did, however, dismiss private nuisance claims brought by municipal water users.
Those plaintiffs presented public, rather than private, nuisance considerations, the court said.
Medical Monitoring Claims The companies also argued New York law barred medical monitoring claims brought by Baker and other plaintiffs with elevated PFOA levels, at least where there is no existing diagnosis.
There are “several complex and novel issues of New York law as to which the existing case law is significantly muddled,” and they warranted an immediate appeal of the order to the Second Circuit.
The law offices of Weitz & Luxenberg represented the plaintiffs.

New Hampshire federal court won’t reconsider remand efforts in water contamination case.
CONCORD, N.H. –– A New Hampshire federal court overseeing a water contamination case has refused to reconsider a motion to remand, rejecting the plaintiffs’ stance that when a proposed class is discrete in nature, a common sense presumption should be used to determine whether citizenship requirements have been met.
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WPX Energy Appalachia has paid a $1.2 million civil penalty for oil and gas violations that affected groundwater and private water supplies in Westmoreland County.
The Pennsylvania Department of Environmental Protection said money from the penalty will go to the state’s well plugging fund, which plugs abandoned and orphaned oil and gas wells that have the potential to cause health, safety or environmental concerns.
The penalty amount is based on the impacts to the water supplies and the severity of the leak, according to the DEP.
In September 2012, testing of five private water supplies indicated that they were impacted by a leak from WPX Energy Appalachia’s on-site impoundment into the groundwater.
The DEP said the impoundment was drained within a week of the leak being discovered.
Affected households were provided bottled water and treatment systems have been installed.
The DEP said it regularly evaluates those systems to ensure they are providing safe drinking water.
In addition to the civil penalty, DEP said the company is required to conclude the investigation into the extent of the impacts and remediate the site in accordance with Pennsylvania’s Land Recycling and Environmental Remediation Standards Act.
This will include remediation of the soil, groundwater, and any surface waters impacted by the leak.
State regulators hope to address the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency’s warning of "serious public health implications" due to inadequate drinking water oversight by raising $7.5 million in new fees paid by public water systems.

Water pollution bill advances, despite strong opposition at public hearing.
Chad Cordell, Kanawha Forest Coalition Organizer, shows photos that he had taken of contaminated mine sites in West Virginia.
Cordell was speaking during Monday’s water quality hearing in the house chambers.”These areas looked nothing like this when i was a child,” said Cordell, who went on to talk about how he now cannot take his own children to the same of the places that he enjoyed in his youth, due to water contamination.
A bill that would allow more toxic pollution to be discharged into West Virginia’s rivers and streams moved one step closure to passage Monday, despite strong opposition at a public hearing in the House.
“I’m trying to save the body time so we can get to the real legislation that is going to create jobs.” Pushkin’s motion failed on a vote of 25-72.
DEP would use average flow figures for streams, instead of the current method using low-flow figures.
This would result in water pollution permits that allow potentially significant increases in legal discharges into rivers and streams statewide.
During a public hearing this morning, the majority of the speakers opposed the legislation.
“I know times are tough, but this bill is not the solution,” said Gabriel Peña of Fayette County, one of two dozen residents who spoke against the measure.
“Protecting water quality is an investment in the future of West Virginia.” Joining industry lobbyists in supporting the bill was Woody Thrasher, Gov.