EPA – Memphis Flyer

Two communities have the same harmful chemical emissions but with extremely different responses and outcomes. As noted in this paper’s cover feature last week, residents of South Memphis recently received the startling news that they might be exposed to cancer-causing chemicals from Sterilization Services of Tennessee, a company in their Memphis 38109 community that sterilizes medical equipment.

Oh, the irony. Damage some people with toxins to protect others with clean equipment.

The Environmental Protection Agency shared the dire news at a community meeting that ethylene oxide (EtO), a known carcinogen, was being released into the air by the company. As expected, shocked and outraged citizens demanded to know the health impact and when the toxic exposure would cease. “You should move,” said one government official. It was pointless advice, as if the people could just pick up and move during these tough economic times. They also received a bunch of bureaucratic hurry-up-and-wait-for-relief responses.

Sterilization Services of Tennessee is based in a community that is home to a population of 96.6 percent Black and 1.8 percent white residents. The median home value is $67,000 and median household income is $31,067.

In comparison, a company called Cosmed Group LLC, based in Erie, Pennsylvania, also sterilizes medical equipment using the same chemical, EtO. Instead of making people move, that company added new controls that became operational in August of this year. Cosmed installed a wet scrubber and a combo water balancer/catalytic oxidizer to control emissions from their facility, based in zip code 16510.

As a result of these changes made by Cosmed, the risk level for residents in their “Erie, PA, facility area has decreased,” according to information on the EPA’s website. The population of Erie is 86 percent white and 9.7 percent Black with a median household value of $105,200 and median household income of $53,021.

It is frustrating, but not at all surprising, to see the disparate outcomes in these two communities. The white community received relief while everything remains uncertain for the Black community.

As a recent frontline environmental justice organizer in Detroit, I became acutely aware of how Black people are more likely to breathe toxic air. The community I left behind in the Motor City remains the most polluted in the sate of Michigan, with more than 27 industrial facilities spewing harmful chemicals into my area on a daily basis. In fact, my community was known for being the most polluted in the state. It was impacted by steel mills, a water and sewerage treatment facility, a biosolids company that baked human waste into fertilizer, asphalt plants, a huge automotive plant, a lime production facility, and a massive oil refinery, plus a freeway adjacent to our subdivision.

Mirroring residents in South Memphis, we had a wide range of diseases and illnesses related to toxic air. I was diagnosed with non-Hodgkin’s lymphoma and asthma, and had to undergo a kidney transplant. My health maladies were not unique. They, in fact, were ubiquitous in our zip code.

As a concerned citizen, I have met with residents of South Memphis who live near Sterilization Services. Hearing their health stories felt like I was sitting at home in a community meeting. My heart ached as I fought back tears. I also was impressed and uplifted by their resolve to keep fighting for a healthy outcome. But why do Black people always have to agitate for everything, even life itself? Our life expectancy should not be determined by our zip code.

“The redlining that occurs in our communities is the same boundaries polluters use to set up facilities in our area,” said Justin J. Pearson, co-founder of Memphis Community Against Pollution. “We live in sacrifice zones.”

Clean air advocates often predict dire consequences regarding the increase in global warming. What they have missed is Black people are already the canaries in the catastrophic environmental coal mine. It is unconscionable to sacrifice the health of a group of people so that others may benefit.

The EPA, government agencies, and industrial facilities must work to develop timely and permanent solutions to end toxic deaths and promote good health outcomes in Black communities. If a company in Erie, Pennsylvania, can solve a pollution problem for white people, it can be done here too by Sterilization Services for Black people in South Memphis.

Emma Lockridge is a veteran news reporter who focuses on the environment and social justice initiatives. Formerly based in Detroit, she also is a photojournalist who has had exhibits of her impactful images.

AP – States and the federal government need to coordinate their efforts to monitor and protect the water of the Mississippi River, a new analysis urges.

The study released Tuesday by the National Research Council calls on the Environmental Protection Agency to coordinate the efforts affecting the river and the northern Gulf of Mexico where its water is discharged.

“The limited attention being given to monitoring and managing the Mississippi’s water quality does not match the river’s significant economic, ecological and cultural importance,” said David A. Dzombak, professor of environmental engineering at Carnegie Mellon University in Pittsburgh.

Dzombak, who was chairman of the committee that prepared the report, said that “in addressing water-quality problems in the river, EPA and the states should draw upon the useful experience in the Chesapeake Bay watershed, where for decades the agency has been working together with states surrounding the bay to reduce nutrient pollution and improve water quality.”

Because it passes through or borders many states, the river’s quality is not consistently monitored, the report said.

In the north, the Upper Mississippi River Basin Association has promoted many cooperative water-quality studies and other initiatives, the report said. That group includes Illinois, Iowa, Minnesota, Missouri and Wisconsin.

But there is no similar organization for the lower-river states — Kentucky, Tennessee, Arkansas, Mississippi and Louisiana — and they should strive to create one, the report said.

EPA also should support better coordination among states, and among its four regional offices along the river corridor, the report says.

Greater effort is needed to ensure that the river is monitored and evaluated as a single system, said the report.

While the 10 states along the river conduct their own programs to monitor water quality, state resources vary widely and there is no single program that oversees the entire river.

In recent years, actions have reduced much point-source pollution, such as direct discharges from factories and wastewater treatment plants.

But the report notes that many of the river’s remaining pollution problems stem from nonpoint sources, such as nutrients and sediments that enter the river and its tributaries through runoff.

Nutrients from fertilizers create water-quality problems in the river itself and contribute to an oxygen-deficient “dead zone” in the northern Gulf of Mexico.

The National Research Council is an arm of the National Academy of Sciences, an independent organization chartered by Congress to advise the government on scientific matters. — Randolph E. Schmid