Sidney A. Shapiro is the Frank U. Fletcher Chair in Law at  Wake Forest University and Vice-President at the Center for Progressive Reform. We talk further about the Winston-Salem fertilizer plant disaster that happened earlier this year. You can listen to the past two episodes to get further details on the disaster.

With Sidney we talk about his personal experience with the evacuation, the demographic that lived directly by it, EPA’s role in this, reform that should be put into place, and how lucky they were that this plant didn’t explode.

Contact and connect with Sidney: https://law.wfu.edu/faculty/profile/shapirsa/

http://progressivereform.net/ShapiroSidneyBio.cfm

CRP report:http://progressivereform.org/our-work/energy-environment/preventing-double-disasters/

Other news: https://ncpolicywatch.com/2022/02/08/winston-salem-fertilizer-fire-reveals-regulatory-loopholes-spurs-hard-questions-about-building-and-workplace-safety/

Other news: https://earthjustice.org/news/press/2022/disaster-at-winston-salem-fertilizer-plant-is-unacceptable-unnecessary-and-entirely-preventable?fbclid=IwAR1PIVGOJTNVCSPbDSc5qVjM-Vgwh7y6Q97WjDsAqtbfQ2fb8RceomIYVus

In our last episode with David Flores we spoke all about the disaster in Winston-Salem NC that just occured where nearly 600 tons of ammonium nitrate caught fire at the Weaver fertilizer plant on Jan. 31 and burned for four days. The risk of explosion was so great that Winston-Salem officials asked people to evacuate within a mile radius, temporarily displacing 6,000 residents. Now with Deena Tumeh who is an Associate Attorney at Earthjustice, we speak about the reform that she and others have been working on for hazardous chemicals like this.

With Deena we talk about the cases and reform she is working on, why industries are pushing back these laws, if it was preventable, and how we can keep EPA and other federal lawmakers accountable.

Contact and connect with Deena: [email protected]

Winston Salem disaster: https://earthjustice.org/news/press/2022/disaster-at-winston-salem-fertilizer-plant-is-unacceptable-unnecessary-and-entirely-preventable?fbclid=IwAR1PIVGOJTNVCSPbDSc5qVjM-Vgwh7y6Q97WjDsAqtbfQ2fb8RceomIYVus

David Flores, J.D., is a CPR Senior Policy Analyst. He joined CPR in 2016 to work on climate adaptation policy and advocacy.

We talk specifically about the disaster in Winston-Salem NC that just occurred where nearly 600 tons of ammonium nitrate caught fire at the Weaver fertilizer plant on Jan. 31 and burned for four days. The risk of explosion was so great that Winston-Salem officials asked people to evacuate within a mile radius, temporarily displacing 6,000 residents. The Center for Progressive Reform came out with an article that emphasized the need to prevent double disasters, which implies that hazardous chemical releases by industrial facilities are worsened by inadequate action in the face of conditions of climate change and natural disasters. As the global climate crisis intensifies, coastal and inland communities are increasingly at risk of natural disasters.”

With David, we talk about the incident, what preventable measurements could have taken place, who was affected, EPA’s risk management preventions, and what reform can be done on a national level.

Contact and connect with David: [email protected]g 

CRP report:http://progressivereform.org/our-work/energy-environment/preventing-double-disasters/

Other news: https://ncpolicywatch.com/2022/02/08/winston-salem-fertilizer-fire-reveals-regulatory-loopholes-spurs-hard-questions-about-building-and-workplace-safety/

Therese Vick is the NC Sustainable Economic Development Coordinator/ Community Organizer for us here at BREDL. Community groups, especially our BREDL chapters, often use air monitoring as a tool for organizing. They are often concerned about the quality of the air they breathe and how it may affect their health or the health of family and friends. With smaller, low-cost sensors available, groups have become increasingly engaged in monitoring the air quality in their neighborhoods to understand and reduce potential health risks.

To define it, air monitoring is the systematic, long-term assessment of pollutant levels by measuring the quantity and types of certain pollutants in the surrounding, outdoor air. There are many reasons to do air monitoring such as:

With Therese we discuss the validity of community air monitoring, the process for a good air monitoring set up, what people can do with this information after, and how to keep these industries accountable for polluting our air.

Contact and connect with Therese: [email protected]

Air Monitoring resources: https://www.epa.gov/air-quality-management-process/managing-air-quality-ambient-air-monitoring https://www.epa.gov/outdoor-air-quality-data

Sign up for local air notices: ​​https://www.airnow.gov/

Leanna Powell is the Director of Development and Communications at Blue Water Baltimore whose mission is to restore the quality of Baltimore’s rivers, streams and Harbor to foster a healthy environment, a strong economy and thriving communities.

For too long, Baltimore’s waterways have been plagued by trash, toxins, sewage, and polluted stormwater. These problems do more than harm our environment; they threaten the health and well-being of our residents, communities, and local businesses. They work to change this.

With Leanna we talk about water quality issues Baltimore is facing, toxic pollution, historical aspects of the city that have led to water issues, educating and listening to citizens, and how to get involved with water issues near you.

Contact and connect with Leanna: [email protected]

Blue Water Baltimore: https://bluewaterbaltimore.org/

Find a local water keeper: https://waterkeeper.org/

Geeta Kapur is a civil rights attorney and an activist; she is an alumna of UNC-Chapel Hill and its law school. She is also the author of the book about UNC, "To Drink from the Well: The Struggle for Racial Equality at the Nation's Oldest Public University."

With Geeta we talk about her experience attending UNC for undergrad and law school, the racial history of UNC, environmental racism, and what motivated her to write this book.

Contact and connect with Geeta: https://twitter.com/geetankapur or [email protected]

Geeta’s book:https://www.blairpub.com/shop/to-drink-from-the-well

UNC’s racial history: https://www.facingsouth.org/2021/07/voices-uncs-troubled-racial-past-and-present

https://www.facingsouth.org/2021/09/voices-uncs-horrifying-history-environmental-racism https://www.dailytarheel.com/article/2021/09/university-drink-from-the-well-feature

Lyndsey Gilpin is the founder + executive editor of Southerly. Southerly is a nonprofit that serves communities in the South who face environmental injustice and are most at risk of the effects of climate change. They do this by equipping them with the journalism, resources, and information they need to make their communities healthier and safer, to hold power to account, and to have agency over their future.

With Lyndsey we talk about their approach to equipping people with journalism, how they reach people in rural places, how they create their well-rounded stories, and some of the main environmental concerns they write about.

Contact and connect with Lyndsey: [email protected] 

Southerly: https://southerlymag.org/

This is the final episode to finish out the Real Cost of Nuclear season! And it’s all about how nuclear can’t solve the climate crisis. I talk with Don Safer, who is with the Tennessee Environmental Council and does local work with the Sierra Club. There are a lot of claims that nuclear can solve or be a bridge to the climate crisis - but in this episode we question if that is just the industry propaganda that is blinding us to actual solutions?

With Don, we talk about how nuclear does produce Co2, factors that make it unsustainable, the factor of time in the climate crisis, and how clean energy solutions can fix many of our environmental problems.

Contact and connect with Don: [email protected]  

This is another re-release episode where I talk with Ralph Hutchinson who is the coordinator of The Oak Ridge Environmental Peace Alliance. OREPA is committed to nonviolence and believes in using every tool in the toolbox. Their main focus is stopping nuclear weapons production at the Y12 Nuclear Weapons Complex in Oak Ridge, Tennessee, and protecting the environment threatened by legacy and ongoing activities at the Oak Ridge Nuclear Reservation. We discuss background on Y12 and Oak Ridge, the dangers of nuclear weapons productions, the environmental impacts of the nuclear weapon chain, how we are in a new nuclear arms race, getting to the base of why these nuclear weapons are being invested in and made, and then what you can do to get involved.

Contact and connect with Ralph:  [email protected] or https://orepa.org/

Register or learn more about Stop The New Nuclear Arms Race event: https://orepa.org/stop-the-new-nuclear-arms-race-registration-open/

President Trump’s 2020 Budget for Uranium Processing Facilities: https://www.energy.gov/nnsa/budget

https://www.nytimes.com/2020/02/10/us/politics/trump-budget-nuclear-missiles.html

Universities who are investing or engaging in nuclear weapons: https://www.icanw.org/us_universities_are_complicit_in_nuclear_weapons_production_new_ican_report_reveals

Articles on the dangers of Nuclear Weapons: https://futureoflife.org/background/the-risk-of-nuclear-weapons/?cn-reloaded=1

https://www.nap.edu/read/11282/chapter/8#77

Ian Zabarte is the Principle Man of the Western Bands of the Shoshone Nation of Indians and works with the Native Community Action Council. He lives in Las Vegas, NV and has worked on nuclear issues for 30+ years.

We specifically talk about Yucca Mountain Nuclear Waste Repository, which is a proposed deep geological repository storage facility within Yucca Mountain to store spent nuclear fuel, in other terms, nuclear waste and other high-level radioactive waste. The project was approved in 2002 by the 107th United States Congress, but federal funding for the site ended in 2011. With no federal funding it’s up to the NRC and DOE but there has not been a final decision on the repository license application. The project has encountered many difficulties and was highly contested by the Western Shoshone peoples and non-local public. As of 2019 the status of the proposed repository at Yucca Mountain remains uncertain.

We discuss the significant impacts Yucca Mountain has for the Shoshone people, the significance of land and water for Indiginious people, what a nuclear waste repository is, the relationship between tribal governments and the federal government, the Radiation Exposure Compensation Act (RECA), and then what you can do to take action.

Contact and connect with Ian: [email protected]

Learn more about the Native Community Action Council: http://www.nativecommunityactioncouncil.org/index.html

Treaty of Ruby Valley: https://www.nativeweb.org/pages/legal/shoshone/ruby_valley.html

Yucca Mountain Resources: https://www.yuccamountain.org/ http://www.nativecommunityactioncouncil.org/Defend-Yucca-Mountain.html

https://www.usatoday.com/story/news/politics/2018/06/03/yucca-mountain-congress-works-revive-dormant-nuclear-waste-dump/664153002/

https://www.nirs.org/radioactive-waste/hlw/

Radiation Exposure Compensation Act: https://www.justice.gov/civil/common/reca

https://www.congress.gov/bill/116th-congress/senate-bill/947/text

HOLTEC: https://www.counterpunch.org/2019/06/07/halting-holtec-a-challenge-for-nuclear-safety-advocates/