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The Civil War had ended only seven years earlier. Efforts to unravel Reconstruction in the South were well underway. Three years to the day earlier, the driving of the Golden Spike completed the Transcontinental Railroad, hastening the white settling of the West and the displacement of Native Americans.
The riches of the American West were laid bare: massive grazing lands, vast forests, and yet-undiscovered mineral wealth. The General Mining Law of 1872 allowed hard-rock mineral claims in public lands for the cost of about $5 an acre—about $115 in today’s dollars. And the price tag hasn’t increased. Not in 150 years.
I used to be fond of saying that an acre of rights for gold, silver, or platinum could be had for the price of a family-sized bag of Doritos, but no more. Inflation has grown the Doritos price. The gold, silver, or platinum, not so much. Add to the bounty the so-called “rare earths” like lithium, vital in high tech industries.
Toxic wastewater
Claimants owe the U.S. taxpayers nothing in royalties, and nothing in cleanup costs for the staggering amounts of contaminated water and tailings left behind. Thousands of abandoned mines now litter the West. They’re left behind by long-vanished mine operators or foreign-based firms beyond the reach of state or federal regulators.
In 2019, the advocacy group Earthworks pitched a major overhaul of the 1872 law, including substantial procedures to restore explored and mined sites, and a minimum 12.5% royalty on extracted minerals.
That same year, an Associated Press investigation found millions of gallons of toxic wastewater flowing from abandoned mine sites daily—potentially into streams, wells, and other drinking water sources.
Aging ungracefully
In late 2021, the Democrats’ razor-thin majority presented the best chance in years to update the 1872 law.
That chance was killed by two Democrats, Nevada’s Catherine Cortez Masto and, you guessed it, West Virginia’s Joe Manchin. Coal is not covered by the 1872 law, by the way.
So the 1872 Mining Law ages further, and no more gracefully, fouling waterways and fleecing taxpayers, all in one fell swoop.
Peter Dykstra is our weekend editor and columnist and can be reached at pdykstra@ehn.org or @pdykstra.
His views do not necessarily represent those of Environmental Health News, The Daily Climate, or publisher Environmental Health Sciences.
Banner photo: Abandoned Eagle Mine, Tennessee Pass, Colorado.
This decision raises significant climate change and environmental justice concerns, particularly for those disadvantaged communities who may live near future drilling sites.
Our recent study on community exposures to oil and gas production shows that historical redlining has perpetuated patterns of environmental injustice. Redlined neighborhoods have nearly twice the density of oil and gas wells than otherwise comparable neighborhoods that were not redlined.
This essay is also available in Spanish
Our findings may partially explain how it is that Black and Latinx people are more likely to live near oil and gas development infrastructure today.
In light of these findings, policymakers should consider the scientific evidence of the risks posed by oil and gas production to public health, and how historical racist policies contributed to the health disparities we see today.
Redlining and environmental injustice
Many environmental problems disproportionately faced by communities of color and the poor in the U.S. are rooted in discriminatory policies put in place generations ago by local, state, and federal governments. One such policy is known as redlining, in which the federal Home Owners’ Loan Corporation, in trying to revive the housing market in the 1930s in the wake of the Great Depression, graded and mapped how risky neighborhoods were for real estate investment.
Neighborhoods comprised of largely low-income, immigrant, or Black residents were deemed “hazardous” or “definitely declining” and mapped in red (i.e., redlined), while whiter and wealthier communities were considered “best” or “still desirable.”
A 2018 study in Los Angeles found that at least some Home Owners’ Loan Corporation officials explicitly considered the racial makeup of neighborhoods and the presence of oil and gas wells when making decisions about redlining, which influenced future locations of new oil and gas development. Officials gave the highest grade to one predominantly white Los Angeles neighborhood near oil and gas wells after local leaders agreed to impose “racial restrictions in perpetuity,” to keep the neighborhood white while also stopping future oil and gas well drilling. In our recent study, we found that neighborhoods that already had wells were more likely to be redlined, and, in turn, redlined neighborhoods were more likely to have new oil and gas wells drilled after the policy went into effect.
These legacies remain imprinted on neighborhoods today. For many families who have stayed in their redlined neighborhoods for generations, significant environmental and health consequences remain. Research shows that historically redlined neighborhoods have worse air quality, a lack of greenspace, and higher heat island risks, as well as elevated rates of cardiovascular disease, asthma hospitalizations, poor birth outcomes, and other diseases.
Although redlining may not have directly caused these disparities, this discriminatory policy codified and accelerated them through disinvestment in already struggling neighborhoods, which, in turn, has shaped the present-day location of environmental hazards and associated health risks. In terms of oil and gas production, research shows that drilling and operating oil and gas wells worsens air pollution and puts residents living nearby at risk of respiratory disease, cardiovascular disease, depression, and poor birth outcomes, including premature birth.
Shifting away from oil and gas
In California, policymakers, affected residents, and advocates are debating how to protect communities and workers from the impacts of nearby oil and gas production operations, including limiting new drilling permits and establishing buffer zones between active wells and the places where people live, work, play, and go to school. As the state seeks to phase out oil and gas production and prohibit drilling in residential neighborhoods, policymakers should account for the ongoing adverse impact of historical redlining on the environmental quality of communities of color.
This requires that decision-makers engage fence-line communities near oil and gas production facilities to reduce exposures. It also requires expanding programs such as California’s Climate Investments, which has invested over $4.5 billion in transformative, environmental justice projects that address climate change, including renewable energy initiatives. Similarly, the Biden Administration’s Justice40 Initiative, modeled closely on California’s program, would require that at least 40% of federal investments in climate-change mitigation and clean energy projects benefit environmental justice communities.
The worsening climate crisis, along with strained energy supply chains due to rising global tensions amid the Russian invasion of Ukraine, make clear the urgent need for the U.S. to shift away from oil and gas production and toward renewable energy sources. Equally important is that hastening this energy transition would go a long way toward advancing environmental justice for those communities who have endured the health impacts of oil and gas development for generations.
David J.X. González is a Ford Foundation and University of California President’s Postdoctoral Fellow and Rachel Morello-Frosch is a professor at the University of California, Berkeley School of Public Health and Department of Environmental Science, Policy and Management. Morello-Frosch is also a member of the White House Environmental Justice Advisory Council.
Banner photo: UCLA Law students and faculty participated in a toxic tour of Wilmington, CA, a predominantly Latinx neighborhood surrounded by the Port of Los Angeles, heavy industry, and an oil field in 2019. (Credit: Emmett Institute/flickr)
The new study, published today inEnvironmental Science & Technology, shows that some children’s products with “green” or “nontoxic” labeling contain PFAS, which stands for per- and poly-fluoroalkyl substances—a group of toxic chemicals used in many consumer and industrial products. Exposure to these chemicals has been linked to health problems such as certain types of cancer, reproductive issues, and birth defects. The findings, the researchers said, point to the need for better understanding of how PFAS make their way into products, and more regulation to protect consumers.
The researchers tested 93 items marketed to or often used by children and adolescents, including clothing, face masks, mattress protectors, rugs, sheets, and upholstery. They detected fluorine, a PFAS indicator, in 54 of the 93 products. The 54 products shown to contain fluorine were then tested for specific PFAS chemicals.
Related: What are PFAS?
“I was surprised to see how frequently PFAS showed up in a wide range of different consumer products,” Laurel Schaider, an author on the study and the lead PFAS researcher at the Silent Spring Institute, an independent, nonprofit research organization, told EHN.
The paper aimed to illustrate PFAS trends among products marketed as water- or stain-resistant, as well as those with and without “green” labeling or green certifications—third-party assurances that convey to the consumer that the product satisfies certain criteria for chemical safety. At least one item in every product category contained fluorine, while water- and stain-resistant products were most frequently found to contain evidence of PFAS.
The research comes amidst an ongoing collaboration between EHN and wellness community Mamavation that has uncovered evidence of PFAS in clothes, food, and makeup—including in many so-called “green” and “organic” brands.PFAS and “green” assurances
PFAS have been linked to delayed brain development and immune systems problems in children. (Credit: krakenimages/Unsplash)
Waterproof or stain-resistant products labeled with “green” language, such as “nontoxic” or “eco-friendly,” as well as products with green certifications, were found to have similar concentrations of fluorine, a PFAS indicator, to waterproof or stain-resistant products without “green” labeling. Some waterproof products with the green certifications Greenguard Gold and Oeko-Tex Standard 100, two certifications designed to reduce chemical risks to human health, were shown to contain evidence of PFAS.
“PFAS are a large class of substances and not all of them are currently regulated in the framework” of Oeko-Tex Standard 100, Dominik Kinschel, a product manager for Oeko-Tex, said in a statement to EHN. “Therefore, it is possible that a PFAS substance which is not regulated within [Oeko-Tex Standard 100] can be found on a [Oeko-Tex Standard 100] certified article.”
Additionally, he said, Oeko-Tex has the goal to phase out all PFAS chemicals for apparel textiles over the next few years.
Shaider said that while some products that contained the PFAS indicator were labeled “green” and “nontoxic,” green certification can still be a useful tool. Such certifications are often focused on keeping out other harmful chemicals, like pesticides, but not focused on PFAS specifically.
“Certifiers are becoming more aware of concerns about PFAS chemicals,” Schaider said. “[Certifications] are useful for helping consumers avoid certain types of products. But, as of now, they're not as helpful for helping consumers avoid PFAS in textile items.”
Schaider posited that most of the fluorine showing up in these items is added intentionally, though, she said, it is possible that the contamination is unintentional via manufacturing equipment.
PFAS in children’s products are particularly worrisome because, as a type of endocrine-disrupting chemical—meaning it disrupts or mimics proper functioning of hormones—PFAS have a profound impact on still-developing bodies, said Schaider. PFAS have been linked to delayed brain development and immune systems problems in children.
An array of PFAS in products
Most surprising to Schaider was the presence of long-chain PFAS in some of the products tested. Long-chain PFAS are an older version of PFAS chemicals that stay in the human body longer than newer, “short-chain” PFAS chemicals. Manufacturing of long-chain PFAS, like PFOA (perfluorooctanoic acid), for example, has been phased out in the U.S.
However, multiple products tested by the researchers, some of which were labeled with “green” language, contained PFOA. Schaider thinks the PFOA in these products is likely from international sources, such as China, where PFOA manufacturing is still widespread.
Some products tested also contained PFAS precursors—chemicals that break down or are converted into PFAS once they degrade in the environment or enter the human body. The amount of PFAS precursors found in the products was often higher than the amount of named PFAS chemicals detected.
Many PFAS precursors are volatile, meaning they can enter the air more easily than PFAS themselves. These volatile chemicals are more likely to end up in household dust and expose consumers through dust inhalation.
What consumers can do
Consumers looking to avoid PFAS in children’s products can steer clear of water- and stain-resistant products, said Schaider. “Look for items that might be achieving that with a different type of barrier, like a more physical barrier, rather than relying on a coating,” she said.
The Silent Spring Institute has developed a smartphone app, called Detox Me, to help consumers make choices that impact their chemical exposure.
However, Schaider said, the research supports the need for comprehensive PFAS legislation in the U.S. “It shouldn't come down to individual consumers to have to think about toxic chemicals when they're purchasing items for their home.”
Banner photo credit: Ben Wicks/Unsplash
