Toxic Free Future Reports
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| 7/7/2004 | |
| A century of mining in Washington has left a legacy of 3,800 abandoned hardrock mine sites scattered throughout the state. These abandoned mines pollute our streams and rivers, pose a threat to public safety and health, destroy fisheries, and contaminate important groundwater resources. | |
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| 6/5/2005 | |
| Despite progress over the last 35 years, air pollution remains a major public health and environmental problem. States hold the primary responsibility for improving air quality, since the federal government establishes air quality standards and requires states to meet them. California, however, has unique authority under federal law to adopt emission standards for cars, trucks, and most other mobile sources of air pollution that are more protective than federal emission standards; subsequently, other states have the right to choose between implementing federal emission standards or the more stringent California ones. In addition to offering states a critical tool to reduce air pollution, California’s emission standards also have spurred stronger federal emission standards that benefit all Americans, filled gaps left in federal protections, and served as a backstop against the weakening of federal protections. Unfortunately, states’ ability to protect their citizens from air pollution faces an unprecedented threat from industry groups and their allies in Congress and the Bush administration. | |
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| 3/22/2007 | |
| Industries across the United States pump billions of pounds of toxic chemicals into our air, land, and water each year, many of which can cause cancer and other severe health effects. The Environmental Protection Agency’s Toxics Release Inventory (TRI) program provides Americans with the best information about toxic chemicals released in their communities. | |
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| 12/16/2006 | |
| Since 1987, the Toxics Release Inventory (TRI) program has been the nation’s premiere pollution disclosure program. By requiring companies to disclose the pollution they release to our air, water, and land, transfer off site, or dispose in a waste dump, the TRI program has ensured the public’s right-to-know about toxic pollution in communities. | |
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| 10/16/2004 | |
| The Hanford Nuclear Reservation in southeastern Washington is one of the most contaminated nuclear waste sites in the world. During four decades of building nuclear weapons, more than 450 billion gallons of radioactive waste was dumped into the soil and into the Columbia River, enough to submerge the city of Seattle in a lake of waste 25 feet deep. Storage tanks for the most toxic liquid waste have leaked a million gallons of highly radioactive contaminants into the groundwater table. Containing the threat to public health and the environment from the Hanford Site will be a daunting and time consuming task, but a vitally necessary one. | |
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