theintercept--2020-11-16--Hurricane Eta Devastates Central America as U.S. Withdraws From Climate Accord

of Honduras , Anabel Nuñez and other leaders from the Afro-Indigenous Garifuna community of Triunfo de la Cruz inspected the damages wrought by Hurricane Eta .
Four homes on the collective land title were completely destroyed by the Gamma River , which was created by a tropical storm 15 years ago when a river affected by oil palm plantations overflowed and branched off , running through Triunfo de la Cruz on its way to the Caribbean .
Storm surge affected the coast , and uprooted coconut palms now lie along the shoreline .
Residents had planted the trees to mitigate @ @ @ @ @ @ @ recently started to bear fruit .
Nuñez estimates the community lost up to half its traditional dugout canoes used for fishing , and many residents lost subsistence yucca , malanga , plantain , and other crops .
“ The crops and little shelters people used when they worked the land were washed away , ” Nuñez told The Intercept in a telephone interview .
“ They are just gone without a trace.
” With another hurricane , Iota , now bearing down on Central America , Triunfo de la Cruz will use its @ @ @ @ @ @ @ efforts at the donation distribution center it set up to manage the economic impacts of the coronavirus pandemic .
When Nuñez spoke with The Intercept , the community had not received any aid from the municipal government , but food supplies were coming in .
“ They are from people with relatives here , ” Nuñez said .
“ They are Garifuna sisters and brothers who live outside the country.
” There are Garifuna communities in Guatemala , Belize , and Nicaragua , but after Honduras , the largest Garifuna population resides in @ @ @ @ @ @ @ in the U.S. maintains close ties with coastal communities in Central America , and cross-border mutual aid networks offer support in the face of disaster .
Garifuna have been heading north and sometimes back for decades .
Migration often spikes in the wake of crises , and the only comparable precedent for Eta ’ s destruction is Hurricane Mitch , which devastated northern Central America in 1998 .
Within a few months of Mitch ’ s landfall , U.S. and Mexican authorities reported record numbers of apprehensions of Hondurans fleeing the disaster .
@ @ @ @ @ @ @ create similar conditions .
As often happens , the populations that least contribute to climate change are bearing the brunt of its impacts .
For many , it is disaster upon disaster .
Indigenous territories were already under siege from violence , extractive industry and energy projects , tourism development , cattle ranching , and monoculture export crop plantations .
As Eta slowly made its way north , days of rain caused widespread flooding : washing out highways and bridges , submerging entire towns , and generating mass displacement .
Millions of people @ @ @ @ @ @ @ than 145 confirmed deaths across Central America so far , but the toll will likely continue to rise .
Many of the people missing are buried under landslides .
That is the case in Quejá , an Indigenous Maya Poqomchi ’ village north of Guatemala City where a mountainside gave way , burying close to 100 residents .
Rescue workers had to call off the search due to increasingly unstable conditions as the rains continued .
Several smaller landslides in other Indigenous highland regions also killed villagers .
Some predominantly Maya towns and @ @ @ @ @ @ @ fully submerged .
Diversions of rivers by oil palm companies in eastern Guatemala exacerbated the flooding , according to Robin Macloni , director of the Defensoría Q ’ eqchi ’ , a Maya Q ’ eqchi ’ rights and development organization based in El Estor , 190 miles east of the capital .
“ Maize , bean , chile , and other crops were definitively lost in the Polochic region , ” Macloni told The Intercept .
“ There are communities that lost everything.
” Hurricane Eta made landfall as a Category 4 @ @ @ @ @ @ @ depression as it advanced overland .
For many , it is reminiscent of Hurricane Mitch , which left at least 11,000 people dead and thousands missing .
Eta ’ s death toll does not come close to that , but as with Mitch , Honduras was the hardest hit , and recovery will likely be measured in years or even decades .
Hurricane Mitch was considered a rare event , but that is no longer the case with Eta and Iota .
This year ’ s Atlantic hurricane season has been so extreme @ @ @ @ @ @ @ through the alphabet well before Eta came along .
Iota became a Category 5 hurricane on Monday and is expected to bring dangerous levels of rainfall to the countries hardest hit by Eta .
“ This rain would lead to significant , life-threatening flash flooding and river flooding , along with mudslides in areas of higher terrain , ” according to the U.S. National Hurricane Center .
In the face of increasingly frequent extreme weather events and rising sea levels , countries worked together to determine global measures to address and slow down @ @ @ @ @ @ @ signatory to the resulting accord , the Paris Agreement , which entered into force in 2016 under the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change .
In June 2017 , President Donald Trump announced that the U.S. would withdraw from the accord , but because the accord prevented signatories from giving notice of withdrawal for three years following ratification , the U.S. withdrawal officially occurred right when Eta was bearing down on Central America .
Eta made landfall in Nicaragua ’ s North Caribbean Coast Autonomous Region , first hitting the predominantly Indigenous @ @ @ @ @ @ @ remote Indigenous Mayangna communities .
The Mayangna won a groundbreaking collective land rights case in the Inter-American Court of Human Rights in 2001 , but cattle ranching — linked to Nicaraguan beef exports to the U.S. — has been expanding for years into their territory and a biosphere reserve .
“ We are invaded more and more every day , ” said Byron Bucardo , a Mayangna leader from the Bosawas region .
“ Outsiders , who we call the colonos , arrive and they have help from municipal government officials , politicians @ @ @ @ @ @ @ ex-leaders engaged in illegal land sales.
” Non-Indigenous settlers , some of whom work in tandem with large-scale cattle ranchers , clear-cut sections of the largest remaining tract of tropical rainforest in Central America , their cattle contaminate water sources , and they are often armed and aggressive .
Dozens of Indigenous people in Nicaragua ’ s autonomous regions have been killed in recent years , including Mayangna villagers .
“ There have been 12 murders this year , ” Bucardo told The Intercept .
“ The authorities do not care.
” Some @ @ @ @ @ @ @ walk from the nearest road , and most do not have a cell signal .
Not everyone got advance warning that Eta was headed their way , Bucardo said , and flooded communities are experiencing outbreaks of high fevers and diarrhea .
“ They don ’ t have potable water resources .
They get water from the rivers , ” he said .
“ When the rivers swell , they bring contamination and dead animals.
” More than a week later , Bucardo said , food is scarce , no aid has arrived @ @ @ @ @ @ @ travel in and out of some areas .
Nicaragua , Honduras , and Guatemala are the three most impoverished countries in Central America .
Democracy is fragile at best after decades of U.S.-backed military dictatorships and civil wars , and high levels of polarization , corruption , and mistrust in government present severe complications for aid coordination efforts .
In Honduras , for example , President Juan Orlando Hernández was an unindicted co-conspirator in a case against his brother , a former congressman convicted last year by a U.S. federal court on drug @ @ @ @ @ @ @ Without Borders has been providing medical aid , including mental health services , at shelters in Choloma , Honduras .
A textile factory-dominated area that is now the country ’ s third largest city , Choloma experienced severe flooding and displacement during Hurricane Eta , and the government has issued evacuation orders for low-lying areas ahead of Hurricane Iota ’ s arrival .
Prior to Iota , health problems were already apparent in the shelters .
“ Skin complications and respiratory symptoms will be continuous , ” said Juan Carlos Arteaga , the @ @ @ @ @ @ @ .
Arteaga ’ s main concerns are related to midterm consequences .
Mental health crises are likely to become more acute and the coronavirus will remain a threat , as will a potential epidemic of dengue , chikungunya , or Zika , he said .
The mosquito species that can carry the three viruses , all of which can be fatal , breeds in stagnant water , and floodwaters have receded in some areas but not others .
In shelters in northeastern Nicaragua , the government confirmed 354 cases of malaria .
In @ @ @ @ @ @ @ cases in shelters in the Alta Verapaz department .
In Honduras , doctors from a public hospital in San Pedro Sula stated that there have been coronavirus cases in some shelters .
Arteaga is also worried about basic supplies for evacuees , particularly food , given the initial outpouring of contributions in crisis situations often drops off long before the need subsides .
“ In the early days , there is always a lot of support , ” he told The Intercept .
“ That usually fades.
” Hundreds of thousands of people @ @ @ @ @ @ @ and it is unclear how many will be able to return to their homes .
The damage and displacement from Hurricane Mitch in 1998 contributed to the rise in Honduran and Salvadoran migration to the U.S .
Both nationalities were granted temporary protected status in the wake of Mitch , allowing people already in the U.S. to remain due to conditions back home .
“ At present there are no international cross-border protections for people who are displaced by climate-related disaster , ” said Kayly Ober , who manages the Climate Displacement Program @ @ @ @ @ @ @ in Washington , D.C. National and temporary mechanisms such as temporary protected status have significant limitations and drawbacks , according to Ober .
TPS only applies to people already in the U.S. when the status is granted , which excludes populations with less social and economic capital .
It is a status that has to be renewed every six to 18 months and is often under threat of sudden termination .
Guatemala ’ s government has made a formal request for TPS for Guatemalans in the U.S. in the wake of Eta .
@ @ @ @ @ @ @ administration would take that request seriously , ” Ober told The Intercept , noting that the U.S. government ’ s stance on TPS is likely to shift drastically in January .
“ Biden says he wants to ensure a pathway to citizenship for TPS holders.
” A spokesperson for Guatemala ’ s Ministry of Foreign Affairs did not respond to The Intercept ’ s query as to whether the Guatemalan government would consider making a second request for TPS after Biden takes office , should the Trump administration reject the request .
In @ @ @ @ @ @ @ have no intention of migrating to the U.S. or any other country .
Many have been trying to defend their lands from mining and hydroelectric dam projects in recent years .
But now , in the wake of Eta , some residents will need to be relocated within the Ngäbe-Buglé comarca , the most populous Indigenous jurisdiction in Panama and one of the country ’ s most impoverished regions .
“ The national government did not respond immediately , ” said Ricardo Miranda , a member of the National Council of Ngäbe-Buglé Youth @ @ @ @ @ @ @ things more chaotic.
” Although Eta ’ s path was nowhere near Panama , rains from the storm caused extensive damages in the western province of Chiriquí , including Ngäbe-Buglé territory .
Seventeen people in Panama died and two dozen are missing .
In the Ngäbe-Buglé village of Boca de Remedio , a landslide buried a family of six .
The bodies of a 35-year-old man and two children were recovered , but the search for the remaining three was halted due to risk , Miranda told The Intercept .
Hundreds of families @ @ @ @ @ @ @ de Remedio and other villages in two Ngäbe-Buglé districts .
In one area , the land is sinking and collapsing .
In another , an overflowing river washed away homes .
Key roads were destroyed , and now some villages that did not suffer damage from Eta ’ s rains are cut off and running out of food .
“ An immediate response is urgent , ” said Miranda , who has been helping coordinate aid efforts as part of his work with the youth council .
Some 850 miles away , Triunfo @ @ @ @ @ @ @ , such as sleeping mats and sheets for the local school shelters , said Nuñez .
When the pandemic hit , elected community council president Sneider Centeno had approached Nuñez , a nurse , about getting involved with the community aid center , and the two began working together closely .
But in July , Centeno and four other community men , including Garifuna federation members who were active in land rights struggles , were abducted from their homes by armed men wearing uniforms of the police directorate of criminal investigation .
No @ @ @ @ @ @ @ “ To me it feels like it just happened today , ” said Nuñez , her voice breaking .
“ As Garifuna we demand justice , and we demand they be brought back alive.
” After Centeno ’ s forced disappearance , a few people withdrew from the community aid efforts out of fear , but Nuñez never took a step back .
If anything , she is even more committed to the initiative .
Upon hearing the news late last month of Eta ’ s imminent arrival , Nuñez coordinated with a @ @ @ @ @ @ @ are now working overtime as Hurricane Iota approaches .
Centeno is often on her mind .
“ I am doing this work in his memory , ” she said .

On the northern coast of Honduras, Anabel Nuñez and other leaders from the Afro-Indigenous Garifuna community of Triunfo de la Cruz inspected the damages wrought by Hurricane Eta. Four homes on the collective land title were completely destroyed by the Gamma River, which was created by a tropical storm 15 years ago when a river affected by oil palm plantations overflowed and branched off, running through Triunfo de la Cruz on its way to the Caribbean. Storm surge affected the coast, and uprooted coconut palms now lie along the shoreline. Residents had planted the trees to mitigate increasing coastal erosion, and they had recently started to bear fruit. Nuñez estimates the community lost up to half its traditional dugout canoes used for fishing, and many residents lost subsistence yucca, malanga, plantain, and other crops.
“The crops and little shelters people used when they worked the land were washed away,” Nuñez told The Intercept in a telephone interview. “They are just gone without a trace.”
Recently displaced people in the wake of Hurricane Eta surround a truck giving out food in San Pedro Sula, Honduras, on Nov. 7, 2020. Photo: Seth Sidney Berry/SOPA/LightRocket/Getty Images
Hurricane Eta devastated Indigenous communities in Central America this month as the U.S. formally withdrew from the world’s foremost climate accord. While international attention remained focused on the U.S. elections, Hurricane Eta made landfall in northeastern Nicaragua and then proceeded to make its way across Honduras, with severe impacts on Guatemala and other countries in the region as it headed back out to sea and regained hurricane strength before hitting the Florida coast.
With another hurricane, Iota, now bearing down on Central America, Triunfo de la Cruz will use its schools as shelters and is ramping up efforts at the donation distribution center it set up to manage the economic impacts of the coronavirus pandemic. When Nuñez spoke with The Intercept, the community had not received any aid from the municipal government, but food supplies were coming in.
“They are from people with relatives here,” Nuñez said. “They are Garifuna sisters and brothers who live outside the country.”
There are Garifuna communities in Guatemala, Belize, and Nicaragua, but after Honduras, the largest Garifuna population resides in New York City. The Garifuna diaspora in the U.S. maintains close ties with coastal communities in Central America, and cross-border mutual aid networks offer support in the face of disaster. Garifuna have been heading north and sometimes back for decades.
Migration often spikes in the wake of crises, and the only comparable precedent for Eta’s destruction is Hurricane Mitch, which devastated northern Central America in 1998. Within a few months of Mitch’s landfall, U.S. and Mexican authorities reported record numbers of apprehensions of Hondurans fleeing the disaster. The fallout from Eta and Iota may create similar conditions.
An aerial view of the massive, rain-fueled landslide in the village of Queja, in Guatemala, on Nov. 7, 2020, in the aftermath of Eta. Photo: Esteban Biba/Pool Photo/AP
Lost in the Flood
As often happens, the populations that least contribute to climate change are bearing the brunt of its impacts. For many, it is disaster upon disaster. Indigenous territories were already under siege from violence, extractive industry and energy projects, tourism development, cattle ranching, and monoculture export crop plantations.
As Eta slowly made its way north, days of rain caused widespread flooding: washing out highways and bridges, submerging entire towns, and generating mass displacement. Millions of people have been affected. There are more than 145 confirmed deaths across Central America so far, but the toll will likely continue to rise. Many of the people missing are buried under landslides.
The populations that least contribute to climate change are bearing the brunt of its impacts.
That is the case in Quejá, an Indigenous Maya Poqomchi’ village north of Guatemala City where a mountainside gave way, burying close to 100 residents. Rescue workers had to call off the search due to increasingly unstable conditions as the rains continued. Several smaller landslides in other Indigenous highland regions also killed villagers.
Some predominantly Maya towns and communities in Guatemala remain partially or even fully submerged. Diversions of rivers by oil palm companies in eastern Guatemala exacerbated the flooding, according to Robin Macloni, director of the Defensoría Q’eqchi’, a Maya Q’eqchi’ rights and development organization based in El Estor, 190 miles east of the capital.
“Maize, bean, chile, and other crops were definitively lost in the Polochic region,” Macloni told The Intercept. “There are communities that lost everything.”
Hurricane Eta made landfall as a Category 4 hurricane before being downgraded to a tropical depression as it advanced overland. For many, it is reminiscent of Hurricane Mitch, which left at least 11,000 people dead and thousands missing. Eta’s death toll does not come close to that, but as with Mitch, Honduras was the hardest hit, and recovery will likely be measured in years or even decades.
Hurricane Mitch was considered a rare event, but that is no longer the case with Eta and Iota. This year’s Atlantic hurricane season has been so extreme that the naming of tropical storms ran through the alphabet well before Eta came along. Iota became a Category 5 hurricane on Monday and is expected to bring dangerous levels of rainfall to the countries hardest hit by Eta. “This rain would lead to significant, life-threatening flash flooding and river flooding, along with mudslides in areas of higher terrain,” according to the U.S. National Hurricane Center.
(Left/Top) A woman carries her son as she walks on the mud at Bordo del Lancetilla village flooded by the overflow of the Lancetilla river on Nov. 3, 2020 in Tela, Honduras. (Right/Bottom) People who were forced to abandon their homes in the San Pedro Sula Valley due to floods in the aftermath of Hurricane Eta take refuge in a makeshift camp underneath an overpass in Chemelecon on Nov. 7, 2020. Photo: Yoseph Amaya/Getty Images; Seth Sidney Berry/SOPA/AP
In the face of increasingly frequent extreme weather events and rising sea levels, countries worked together to determine global measures to address and slow down climate change. The U.S. was a signatory to the resulting accord, the Paris Agreement, which entered into force in 2016 under the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change.
In June 2017, President Donald Trump announced that the U.S. would withdraw from the accord, but because the accord prevented signatories from giving notice of withdrawal for three years following ratification, the U.S. withdrawal officially occurred right when Eta was bearing down on Central America.
Eta made landfall in Nicaragua’s North Caribbean Coast Autonomous Region, first hitting the predominantly Indigenous Miskito coast before moving inland over more remote Indigenous Mayangna communities. The Mayangna won a groundbreaking collective land rights case in the Inter-American Court of Human Rights in 2001, but cattle ranching — linked to Nicaraguan beef exports to the U.S. — has been expanding for years into their territory and a biosphere reserve.
“We are invaded more and more every day,” said Byron Bucardo, a Mayangna leader from the Bosawas region. “Outsiders, who we call the colonos, arrive and they have help from municipal government officials, politicians, certain lawyers, and even some ex-leaders engaged in illegal land sales.”
Read our Complete Coverage Climate Crimes
Non-Indigenous settlers, some of whom work in tandem with large-scale cattle ranchers, clear-cut sections of the largest remaining tract of tropical rainforest in Central America, their cattle contaminate water sources, and they are often armed and aggressive. Dozens of Indigenous people in Nicaragua’s autonomous regions have been killed in recent years, including Mayangna villagers.
“There have been 12 murders this year,” Bucardo told The Intercept. “The authorities do not care.”
Some Mayangna villages are a day’s walk from the nearest road, and most do not have a cell signal. Not everyone got advance warning that Eta was headed their way, Bucardo said, and flooded communities are experiencing outbreaks of high fevers and diarrhea.
“They don’t have potable water resources. They get water from the rivers,” he said. “When the rivers swell, they bring contamination and dead animals.”
More than a week later, Bucardo said, food is scarce, no aid has arrived, and flooding and violent settlers complicate travel in and out of some areas.
A man wades amid rubbish caused by the passage of Hurricane Eta in the municipality of La Lima, Honduras, on Nov. 8, 2020. Photo: Orlando Sierra/AFP/Getty Images
Displaced by Climate Disaster
Nicaragua, Honduras, and Guatemala are the three most impoverished countries in Central America. Democracy is fragile at best after decades of U.S.-backed military dictatorships and civil wars, and high levels of polarization, corruption, and mistrust in government present severe complications for aid coordination efforts. In Honduras, for example, President Juan Orlando Hernández was an unindicted co-conspirator in a case against his brother, a former congressman convicted last year by a U.S. federal court on drug trafficking charges.
A team from Doctors Without Borders has been providing medical aid, including mental health services, at shelters in Choloma, Honduras. A textile factory-dominated area that is now the country’s third largest city, Choloma experienced severe flooding and displacement during Hurricane Eta, and the government has issued evacuation orders for low-lying areas ahead of Hurricane Iota’s arrival. Prior to Iota, health problems were already apparent in the shelters.
“Skin complications and respiratory symptoms will be continuous,” said Juan Carlos Arteaga, the Doctors Without Borders team leader in Choloma.
Arteaga’s main concerns are related to midterm consequences. Mental health crises are likely to become more acute and the coronavirus will remain a threat, as will a potential epidemic of dengue, chikungunya, or Zika, he said. The mosquito species that can carry the three viruses, all of which can be fatal, breeds in stagnant water, and floodwaters have receded in some areas but not others.
In shelters in northeastern Nicaragua, the government confirmed 354 cases of malaria. In Guatemala, health officials confirmed 86 Covid-19 cases in shelters in the Alta Verapaz department. In Honduras, doctors from a public hospital in San Pedro Sula stated that there have been coronavirus cases in some shelters.
Arteaga is also worried about basic supplies for evacuees, particularly food, given the initial outpouring of contributions in crisis situations often drops off long before the need subsides. “In the early days, there is always a lot of support,” he told The Intercept. “That usually fades.”
Hundreds of thousands of people were internally displaced across the region, and it is unclear how many will be able to return to their homes. The damage and displacement from Hurricane Mitch in 1998 contributed to the rise in Honduran and Salvadoran migration to the U.S. Both nationalities were granted temporary protected status in the wake of Mitch, allowing people already in the U.S. to remain due to conditions back home.
“At present there are no international cross-border protections for people who are displaced by climate-related disaster,” said Kayly Ober, who manages the Climate Displacement Program at Refugees International, an NGO based in Washington, D.C.
National and temporary mechanisms such as temporary protected status have significant limitations and drawbacks, according to Ober. TPS only applies to people already in the U.S. when the status is granted, which excludes populations with less social and economic capital. It is a status that has to be renewed every six to 18 months and is often under threat of sudden termination.
People remain in a temporary shelter after their homes were flooded due to the heavy rains caused by Hurricane Eta in Morales, north Guatemala City, on Nov. 7, 2020. Photo: Johan Ordonez/AFP/Getty Images
Guatemala’s government has made a formal request for TPS for Guatemalans in the U.S. in the wake of Eta. “I very much doubt that this administration would take that request seriously,” Ober told The Intercept, noting that the U.S. government’s stance on TPS is likely to shift drastically in January. “Biden says he wants to ensure a pathway to citizenship for TPS holders.”
A spokesperson for Guatemala’s Ministry of Foreign Affairs did not respond to The Intercept’s query as to whether the Guatemalan government would consider making a second request for TPS after Biden takes office, should the Trump administration reject the request.
In Panama, most Indigenous Ngäbe-Buglé community residents have no intention of migrating to the U.S. or any other country. Many have been trying to defend their lands from mining and hydroelectric dam projects in recent years. But now, in the wake of Eta, some residents will need to be relocated within the Ngäbe-Buglé comarca, the most populous Indigenous jurisdiction in Panama and one of the country’s most impoverished regions.
“The national government did not respond immediately,” said Ricardo Miranda, a member of the National Council of Ngäbe-Buglé Youth. “It reacted late and made things more chaotic.”
Although Eta’s path was nowhere near Panama, rains from the storm caused extensive damages in the western province of Chiriquí, including Ngäbe-Buglé territory. Seventeen people in Panama died and two dozen are missing. In the Ngäbe-Buglé village of Boca de Remedio, a landslide buried a family of six. The bodies of a 35-year-old man and two children were recovered, but the search for the remaining three was halted due to risk, Miranda told The Intercept.
Hundreds of families have taken shelter in schools in Boca de Remedio and other villages in two Ngäbe-Buglé districts. In one area, the land is sinking and collapsing. In another, an overflowing river washed away homes. Key roads were destroyed, and now some villages that did not suffer damage from Eta’s rains are cut off and running out of food.
“An immediate response is urgent,” said Miranda, who has been helping coordinate aid efforts as part of his work with the youth council.
Some 850 miles away, Triunfo de la Cruz has pressing needs too, such as sleeping mats and sheets for the local school shelters, said Nuñez. When the pandemic hit, elected community council president Sneider Centeno had approached Nuñez, a nurse, about getting involved with the community aid center, and the two began working together closely.
But in July, Centeno and four other community men, including Garifuna federation members who were active in land rights struggles, were abducted from their homes by armed men wearing uniforms of the police directorate of criminal investigation. No one has heard from them since.
“To me it feels like it just happened today,” said Nuñez, her voice breaking. “As Garifuna we demand justice, and we demand they be brought back alive.”
After Centeno’s forced disappearance, a few people withdrew from the community aid efforts out of fear, but Nuñez never took a step back. If anything, she is even more committed to the initiative. Upon hearing the news late last month of Eta’s imminent arrival, Nuñez coordinated with a group of young women, and they are now working overtime as Hurricane Iota approaches. Centeno is often on her mind.
“I am doing this work in his memory,” she said.


theintercept--2020-11-16--Georgia’s Senate Runoff Will Determine Whether the Minimum Wage Increases

claims in his official biography that during his time as CEO of Dollar General from 2003 to 2007 , “ he created thousands of quality jobs and helped working families make it from payday to payday.
” During that time , Dollar General opened up over 100 new stores in Georgia , bringing the total to 464 in the state .
While Perdue earned over $ 50 million in total compensation from the company , the employees holding those allegedly quality jobs launched multiple lawsuits claiming that Perdue ’ s generous executive compensation was the product of wage theft and @ @ @ @ @ @ @ leadership , no less than four class-action lawsuits — eventually combined into one — were filed against the company for wage theft , alleging systematic misclassification of managers to deny them overtime pay .
The company ’ s business model relied on exploiting a loophole in overtime rules .
If an employee could be classified as a “ manager , ” then the company could push them to work 60 or 80 hours a week but pay them no overtime or extra salary .
The company ’ s annual reports during the time @ @ @ @ @ @ @ pursued “ lean staffing of usually two to three employees in the store at any time ” and stressed that “ changes in minimum wage laws ” could undermine the company ’ s bottom line .
The company also warned that profits would be hit if “ a significant portion of our employee base unionizes , or attempts to unionize.
” Dollar General paid $ 8.4 million in 2014 to settle allegations that it had withheld overtime compensation to its managers , who rarely performed managerial duties and instead performed the normal functions @ @ @ @ @ @ @ for 60 to 90 hours per week .
The lawsuit was filed on Purdue ’ s watch in 2006 .
Dollar General had also paid out $ 18.7 million the same year for gender-based pay discrimination for violations that had also occurred on Perdue ’ s watch .
In his successful 2014 campaign for the U.S. Senate , Perdue showed that his own views closely mirror those described in Dollar General ’ s financial statements .
“ As I have said , if you increase the minimum wage , you will kill jobs @ @ @ @ @ @ @ in a debate with his Democratic opponent .
The Republican Senate majority has steadfastly refused to take up a possible hike in the minimum wage .
The Democrat-controlled House passed a minimum-wage increase that would raise the wage from the current $ 7.25 to $ 15 by 2024 , which all but six Democrats voted for and all but three Republicans voted against .
The two Senate races in Georgia , which will hold a runoff on January 5 , will determine both control of the Senate and the likelihood of an increase @ @ @ @ @ @ @ virtually guaranteed if Democrats win control of the Senate .
Data from the National Employment Law Project shows that 45.3 percent of Georgians make less than $ 15 per hour .
“ The convergence of low wages and increased cost of living was already a problem and the pandemic made it worse for retail workers , ” said Valerie Barnhart , a spokesperson for United Food and Commercial Workers Local 1996 , which represents retail workers in the South .
“ We need to see the minimum wage go up in Georgia to @ @ @ @ @ @ @ s not going to happen at the state level because of the Georgia General Assembly .
That ’ s why these Senate races are so important because this is the only way Georgia workers will get a raise.
” continuing to create more of our core customer , ” Perdue ’ s successor as Dollar General CEO , Todd Vasos , announced on a Wall Street earnings call in 2017 .
Vasos was referring to the fact that rising levels of poverty meant more shoppers at Dollar General .
Rising poverty means not @ @ @ @ @ @ @ lowest prices , but also declining rates of reliable car ownership , which forces people to seek what is immediately in their town or neighborhood — which is a dollar store .
On Perdue ’ s watch at Dollar General , a similar dynamic held .
Nationwide , Perdue oversaw Dollar General ’ s growth from 6,273 stores to 8,260 .
A Harvard Business School case study done in 2007 with Perdue ’ s collaboration attributed the explosive growth to two factors : “ the new bargain-based mentality of the American consumer ” @ @ @ @ @ @ @ households in lower-income brackets and/or fixed incomes.
” “ It ’ s been pretty clear that these stores do well during economic downturns , ” said Jerry Shannon , an assistant professor of geography at the University of Georgia who has studied the impact of dollar stores .
Dollar stores grew , Shannon noted , with “ the decline of small , independent retailers in the wake of both the recession and the increasing corporate consolidation of retail options either through Walmart or other large supermarket chains , and the increasing number of @ @ @ @ @ @ @ wake of the recession.
” Perdue took the helm of Dollar General in the wake of the 2001 dot-com recession , reaping the benefits of higher poverty by pushing expansion .
Perdue ’ s work reached its zenith when the company was purchased by a consortium of private equity firms and banks led by KKR in 2007 .
Perdue received a $ 42 million payout ; $ 9.5 million of that payout was a severance agreement triggered by a change in ownership — a change in ownership that was facilitated by Perdue , @ @ @ @ @ @ @ Perdue took the helm of Dollar General soon after his first cousin , Sonny Perdue , became governor of Georgia .
Sonny Perdue is now the outgoing Secretary of Agriculture under President Donald Trump .
The public policy pursued by Perdue as governor produced more and more customers for Dollar General .
As governor , Perdue repeatedly cut funds for public education — $ 1 billion annually below the established formula .
A 2016 study from the Quarterly Journal of Economics found that increased state education spending led to higher wages and lower @ @ @ @ @ @ @ funds .
“ Dollar stores have proliferated like crazy and particularly targeted small towns , rural areas , and low-income urban neighborhoods , particularly African American ones , ” said Stacy Mitchell , co-director of the Institute for Local Self-Reliance , which advocates for sustainable local economies .
“ Dollar stores feed more Americans than Whole Foods Market , and what we ’ ve learned is that they ’ re not just a symptom of poverty , they are a cause of it.
” A central way that dollar stores generate poverty is @ @ @ @ @ @ @ stores that sell produce .
“ Dollar stores will come in and set up across the street from an independent grocer , ” Mitchell said .
“ They sell key items for very low prices at a loss .
As a grocer , you ’ re not making very much money on the fresh food , you make it on the packaged stuff .
If you lose that profit margin , you go into the red .
Time and time again , you see dollar stores come in and cause existing grocers to @ @ @ @ @ @ @ the impact of Dollar General on local business ecosystems , some municipalities in the state have hit the pause button .
DeKalb County has announced a moratorium on new dollar stores in unincorporated areas , as has the city of Stonecrest .
DeKalb County Commissioner Lorraine Cochran-Johnson has led an effort in the county to place a moratorium on new dollar stores and said that the push came out of complaints from her constituents .
“ A person said to me , ‘ I hope you understand that dollar stores are not economic @ @ @ @ @ @ @ us far more harm than good , ’ ” Cochran-Johnson recalled .
“ What you find is when there is a massive presence of dollar stores , that ’ s where you tend to see food deserts and the greatest health disparities.
” Mitchell also noted the low wages paid by dollar stores .
“ Dollar stores do have very low wages and a history of wage and hour lawsuits and [ Occupational Safety and Health Administration ] violations , as well as history of violence , with quite a few staff members @ @ @ @ @ @ @ of these jobs is quite poor .
Even the so-called managers are paid very low for the number of hours they work.
” David Perdue ’ s use of low wages as a business tactic didn ’ t stop with Dollar General .
The Atlanta Journal-Constitution reported in 2017 that a 78-year-old trucking company acquired by David and Sonny Perdue in 2012 apparently failed as a “ result of poor management that manifested in low pay and aging equipment , among other things , while the industry has just enjoyed two prosperous years.
@ @ @ @ @ @ @ his role as CEO .
“ As CEO of Dollar General , David Perdue led a turnaround — expanding its presence to over 8,500 stores nationwide and creating thousands of quality American jobs .
Perdue worked his way through college and created tens of thousands of jobs throughout his career — he has worked hard and earned everything he ’ s got , ” and accused Perdue ’ s opponent Jon Ossoff of being a “ privileged liberal.
” The January election is likely to be extremely competitive and expensive .
Both Democratic @ @ @ @ @ @ @ Raphael Warnock , have pledged to support a minimum-wage increase in the Senate .
Perdue ’ s running mate , Kelly Loeffler , does not have a public position on raising the minimum wage .

Georgia Sen. David Perdue claims in his official biography that during his time as CEO of Dollar General from 2003 to 2007, “he created thousands of quality jobs and helped working families make it from payday to payday.”
During that time, Dollar General opened up over 100 new stores in Georgia, bringing the total to 464 in the state. While Perdue earned over $50 million in total compensation from the company, the employees holding those allegedly quality jobs launched multiple lawsuits claiming that Perdue’s generous executive compensation was the product of wage theft and systemic exploitation.
Under Perdue’s leadership, no less than four class-action lawsuits — eventually combined into one — were filed against the company for wage theft, alleging systematic misclassification of managers to deny them overtime pay. The company’s business model relied on exploiting a loophole in overtime rules. If an employee could be classified as a “manager,” then the company could push them to work 60 or 80 hours a week but pay them no overtime or extra salary.
The company’s annual reports during the time Perdue ran it emphasized that Dollar General pursued “lean staffing of usually two to three employees in the store at any time” and stressed that “changes in minimum wage laws” could undermine the company’s bottom line. The company also warned that profits would be hit if “a significant portion of our employee base unionizes, or attempts to unionize.”
Dollar General paid $8.4 million in 2014 to settle allegations that it had withheld overtime compensation to its managers, who rarely performed managerial duties and instead performed the normal functions of running a Dollar General store, for 60 to 90 hours per week. The lawsuit was filed on Purdue’s watch in 2006. Dollar General had also paid out $18.7 million the same year for gender-based pay discrimination for violations that had also occurred on Perdue’s watch.
In his successful 2014 campaign for the U.S. Senate, Perdue showed that his own views closely mirror those described in Dollar General’s financial statements. “As I have said, if you increase the minimum wage, you will kill jobs in this country,” Perdue said in a debate with his Democratic opponent.
The Republican Senate majority has steadfastly refused to take up a possible hike in the minimum wage. The Democrat-controlled House passed a minimum-wage increase that would raise the wage from the current $7.25 to $15 by 2024, which all but six Democrats voted for and all but three Republicans voted against.
The two Senate races in Georgia, which will hold a runoff on January 5, will determine both control of the Senate and the likelihood of an increase in the minimum wage, which is virtually guaranteed if Democrats win control of the Senate. Data from the National Employment Law Project shows that 45.3 percent of Georgians make less than $15 per hour.
“The convergence of low wages and increased cost of living was already a problem and the pandemic made it worse for retail workers,” said Valerie Barnhart, a spokesperson for United Food and Commercial Workers Local 1996, which represents retail workers in the South. “We need to see the minimum wage go up in Georgia to at least $15. That’s not going to happen at the state level because of the Georgia General Assembly. That’s why these Senate races are so important because this is the only way Georgia workers will get a raise.”
“The economy is continuing to create more of our core customer,” Perdue’s successor as Dollar General CEO, Todd Vasos, announced on a Wall Street earnings call in 2017. Vasos was referring to the fact that rising levels of poverty meant more shoppers at Dollar General. Rising poverty means not just shoppers more likely to seek the lowest prices, but also declining rates of reliable car ownership, which forces people to seek what is immediately in their town or neighborhood — which is a dollar store.
On Perdue’s watch at Dollar General, a similar dynamic held. Nationwide, Perdue oversaw Dollar General’s growth from 6,273 stores to 8,260. A Harvard Business School case study done in 2007 with Perdue’s collaboration attributed the explosive growth to two factors: “the new bargain-based mentality of the American consumer” and “the rising percentage of U.S. households in lower-income brackets and/or fixed incomes.”
“It’s been pretty clear that these stores do well during economic downturns,” said Jerry Shannon, an assistant professor of geography at the University of Georgia who has studied the impact of dollar stores. Dollar stores grew, Shannon noted, with “the decline of small, independent retailers in the wake of both the recession and the increasing corporate consolidation of retail options either through Walmart or other large supermarket chains, and the increasing number of households facing precarious economic circumstances in the wake of the recession.”
Perdue took the helm of Dollar General in the wake of the 2001 dot-com recession, reaping the benefits of higher poverty by pushing expansion. Perdue’s work reached its zenith when the company was purchased by a consortium of private equity firms and banks led by KKR in 2007. Perdue received a $42 million payout; $9.5 million of that payout was a severance agreement triggered by a change in ownership — a change in ownership that was facilitated by Perdue, Securities and Exchange Commission filings show.
Republican Senate candidate David Perdue looks on during a campaign event at Pot Luck Cafe on Oct. 31, 2020 in Monroe, Ga. Photo: Justin Sullivan/Getty Images
Perdue took the helm of Dollar General soon after his first cousin, Sonny Perdue, became governor of Georgia. Sonny Perdue is now the outgoing Secretary of Agriculture under President Donald Trump. The public policy pursued by Perdue as governor produced more and more customers for Dollar General.
As governor, Perdue repeatedly cut funds for public education — $1 billion annually below the established formula. A 2016 study from the Quarterly Journal of Economics found that increased state education spending led to higher wages and lower poverty in the neighborhoods receiving the additional funds.
“Dollar stores have proliferated like crazy and particularly targeted small towns, rural areas, and low-income urban neighborhoods, particularly African American ones,” said Stacy Mitchell, co-director of the Institute for Local Self-Reliance, which advocates for sustainable local economies. “Dollar stores feed more Americans than Whole Foods Market, and what we’ve learned is that they’re not just a symptom of poverty, they are a cause of it.”
A central way that dollar stores generate poverty is that they undermine independent locally owned grocery stores that sell produce. “Dollar stores will come in and set up across the street from an independent grocer,” Mitchell said. “They sell key items for very low prices at a loss. As a grocer, you’re not making very much money on the fresh food, you make it on the packaged stuff. If you lose that profit margin, you go into the red. Time and time again, you see dollar stores come in and cause existing grocers to close,” Mitchell said.
“Dollar stores feed more Americans than Whole Foods Market, and what we’ve learned is that they’re not just a symptom of poverty, they are a cause of it.”
Given the impact of Dollar General on local business ecosystems, some municipalities in the state have hit the pause button. DeKalb County has announced a moratorium on new dollar stores in unincorporated areas, as has the city of Stonecrest. DeKalb County Commissioner Lorraine Cochran-Johnson has led an effort in the county to place a moratorium on new dollar stores and said that the push came out of complaints from her constituents. “A person said to me, ‘I hope you understand that dollar stores are not economic development in our communities. They cause us far more harm than good,’” Cochran-Johnson recalled. “What you find is when there is a massive presence of dollar stores, that’s where you tend to see food deserts and the greatest health disparities.”
Mitchell also noted the low wages paid by dollar stores. “Dollar stores do have very low wages and a history of wage and hour lawsuits and [Occupational Safety and Health Administration] violations, as well as history of violence, with quite a few staff members who lost their lives. The quality of these jobs is quite poor. Even the so-called managers are paid very low for the number of hours they work.”
David Perdue’s use of low wages as a business tactic didn’t stop with Dollar General. The Atlanta Journal-Constitution reported in 2017 that a 78-year-old trucking company acquired by David and Sonny Perdue in 2012 apparently failed as a “result of poor management that manifested in low pay and aging equipment, among other things, while the industry has just enjoyed two prosperous years.”
A spokesperson for David Perdue defended his role as CEO. “As CEO of Dollar General, David Perdue led a turnaround — expanding its presence to over 8,500 stores nationwide and creating thousands of quality American jobs. Perdue worked his way through college and created tens of thousands of jobs throughout his career — he has worked hard and earned everything he’s got,” and accused Perdue’s opponent Jon Ossoff of being a “privileged liberal.”
The January election is likely to be extremely competitive and expensive. Both Democratic candidates running, Ossoff and Rev. Raphael Warnock, have pledged to support a minimum-wage increase in the Senate. Perdue’s running mate, Kelly Loeffler, does not have a public position on raising the minimum wage.


theintercept--2020-11-17--Solvay Withholds Data About Toxic PFAS Pollution in New Jersey

battling the chemical company Solvay Specialty Polymers over critical information about a recently identified group of PFAS compounds .
The company has provided the New Jersey Department of Environmental Protection with studies showing that the chemicals , which it has released near its plant in West Deptford , are toxic .
But Solvay has forbidden the state agency from sharing the details of the chemicals ’ effects on health and the environment on the grounds that they are confidential business information .
On November 10 , the New Jersey Department of Environmental Protection sued Solvay over the PFAS contamination , @ @ @ @ @ @ @ environmental laws by releasing the toxic industrial compounds into soil , water , and air near the plant .
The suit also demanded that the company allow the state agency to release information about the newly discovered chemicals ’ effects on health and the environment .
Solvay had previously used other PFAS compounds , including PFOA and a molecule called PFNA , at its Southern Jersey plant .
By 2010 , the company stopped using those compounds , which remain in the body for years and are associated with multiple health effects , @ @ @ @ @ @ @ had contaminated local drinking water .
New Jersey has since regulated both compounds , setting among the most stringent safety levels in the country .
According to the recently filed suit , “ Solvay has used — and continues to use — ‘ replacement ’ PFAS products at the Site , the identities of which it claims are confidential.
” In April 2019 , the company admitted to having used the unregulated chemicals for the past two decades , according to the suit .
Solvay is also refusing to release information to the @ @ @ @ @ @ @ unregulated replacement PFAS compounds as well as emissions information , safety data sheets , and studies that show the environmental and health risks they pose , arguing that they ’ re proprietary information .
In an emailed statement , Solvay said , “ We have made considerable effort to engage in good faith with the NJDEP , including offering multiple proposals to launch a cooperative , expedited , and scientifically reliable investigation of our current process aids .
We are surprised and disappointed that rather than pursue this expedited and cooperative route , @ @ @ @ @ @ @ path .
We intend to defend ourselves vigorously against NJDEP ’ s inaccurate , overly broad , and meritless allegations .
We remain committed to completing our investigation and remediation of PFAS impacts scientifically attributable to our West Deptford facility in compliance with applicable laws and regulations.
” The company did not respond to specific questions about its claims that toxicity information should be withheld from the public .
People living in the area have good reason to be concerned about the chemicals .
In June , an article in the peer-reviewed journal @ @ @ @ @ @ @ the PFAS molecules were in the soil in New Jersey .
Based on complex mapping , the authors — scientists from the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency and the New Jersey Department of Environmental Protection — showed that the soil contamination had spread far beyond the factory .
According to emails released under New Jersey ’ s open records law , Solvay gave the Department of Environmental Protection two studies showing that the compounds are toxic .
A June 25 , 2019 , email includes a description by a New Jersey toxicologist of the @ @ @ @ @ @ @ ’ s PFAS chemicals cause liver damage in rats .
Both studies showed that rats were affected at very low does of the compound .
The studies also suggest “ a potential for human toxicity , ” as NJDEP environmental specialist Erica Bergman wrote in the email .
The European Chemicals Agency also has scant information on the chemicals .
The regulatory body describes one of the compounds in the group as being fatal if swallowed or brought in contact with skin , causing severe skin burns and eye damage , liver damage @ @ @ @ @ @ @ being toxic to aquatic life with “ long-lasting effects.
” But the European agency doesn ’ t include the studies on which these conclusions are based .
Whatever information the New Jersey Department of Environmental Protection possesses has led that agency to suggest that the “ replacement ” chemicals may be even more toxic than the original compounds , as it states in the recent lawsuit .
After DuPont agreed to phase out its use of PFOA , which was based on an 8-carbon chain molecule , it then developed GenX , based @ @ @ @ @ @ @ claimed that its replacement molecule was “ more sustainable.
” Other companies also began using shorter chain PFAS compounds after it became clear that PFOA and other relatively long-chain molecules were extremely toxic and remained in the body for years .
But the molecules recently found in the soil near the Solvay plant are longer than those of GenX — which turned out to be more toxic than PFOA in certain ways .
The length of the molecules suggest that the Solvay compounds may be especially dangerous , according to the suit .
@ @ @ @ @ @ @ studies has become public , the state agency has refused to release the studies themselves or datasheets that summarize the hazards of the chemicals , which are sometimes known as CIPFPECAs .
The Intercept asked NJDEP for any information documenting the health and environmental effects of the recently discovered chemicals in mid-June .
Two weeks later , spokesperson Larry Hajna sent an email acknowledging that “ Solvay has conducted toxicology studies for CIPFPECAs and provided them to the DEP , ” but he declined to provide the studies because the company provided them @ @ @ @ @ @ @ not releasable to the public.
” In October , the NJDEP denied an open records request for the studies by The Intercept “ due to the circumstances surrounding the ongoing COVID-19 pandemic.
” New Jersey law gives the NJDEP authority to challenge confidentiality claims , but the agency did not respond to a question from The Intercept about whether it had done so .
Federal law forbids companies from claiming such studies as confidential business information .
In its lawsuit , New Jersey asks the court to order Solvay to “ withdraw its @ @ @ @ @ @ @ replacement ” PFAS compounds , including the identities of those compounds ; all information relating to discharges , emissions , or releases of such compounds into New Jersey ’ s environment ; all health and safety information ; and all information relevant to developing analytical methods and standards capable of measuring these compounds in the environment.
” While both the company and the state possess detailed information about how the chemicals affect health , the people most likely to suffer physical consequences from the contamination — the residents of West Deptford — do @ @ @ @ @ @ @ important to know if this stuff builds up in their blood and whether it has health effects , ” said Tracy Carluccio , deputy director of Delaware Riverkeeper Network , who has been working to address PFAS contamination in New Jersey since 2005 .
“ And the people living here don ’ t know.
” The company ’ s refusal to release the information about the chemicals ’ health and environmental effects could deepen distrust among West Deptford residents that first blossomed in response to the 2013 discovery that Solvay , a trusted @ @ @ @ @ @ @ water , according to Carluccio .
“ It was a traumatic awakening for people , ” she said .
“ It was such a shock — people felt this was a responsible industry and then they ’ ve find out they ’ ve been poisoned.
” In its statement , Solvay wrote , “ As a science company with sustainability at our core , Solvay meets applicable legal standards with respect to health , safety and the environment .
We care deeply about the wellbeing of our employees and the communities in which @ @ @ @ @ @ @ any allegations to the contrary.
” The suit is just the latest salvo in a legal battle between the company and the state .
In March 2019 , New Jersey sued Solvay along with four other companies , including DuPont and 3M , demanding that the companies pay the costs associated with cleaning up the PFAS chemicals they emitted into the environment .
But Solvay has not complied with all the state ’ s requests , according to the most recent lawsuit .
In October , a coalition of businesses and trade groups @ @ @ @ @ @ @ of New Jersey , filed a legal challenge to restrictions the state had placed on PFAS , calling them “ regulatory overreach.
” While the membership of the Chemical Council of New Jersey is not public — and Solvay didn ’ t respond to a question about whether it belongs to the group — Chuck Jones , the site manager of the company ’ s West Deptford plant , is on the industry group ’ s board of directors .
In the suit , the plaintiffs argue that compliance with New Jersey ’ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ additional costs.
” In the November suit , the state also noted that Solvay had “ failed to provide ” analytical standards for the chemicals .
These official samples allow scientists to definitively confirm the presence of chemicals in the environment .
“ Without them we can ’ t give estimates or measurements of the concentrations of compounds in the water , ” said P. Lee Ferguson , associate professor of civil and environmental engineering at Duke University .
“ And concentrations are critical for understanding health impacts.
” While withholding analytical samples @ @ @ @ @ @ @ more difficult , it is not unusual for companies to do so .
“ Unless it ’ s a PR benefit for them , they don ’ t have an incentive to work with the researchers , ” said Ferguson .
Residents of Alessandria , Italy , where another Solvay plant is located , have identified some of the same replacement PFAS compounds detected in New Jersey and have also have reported difficulties obtaining an analytic standard for at least one of them , according to Viola Cereda , who lives is the @ @ @ @ @ @ @ local group concerned about the contamination .
The work of environmental toxicologists is also complicated by being unable to access the science produced by industry .
“ Not having information on some of the toxicity-related testing that companies have done puts us as researchers behind the eight ball , ” said Jamie DeWitt , an associate professor of toxicology at East Carolina University whose work shows that GenX suppresses immune response in mice .
If testing done by companies was made public , “ I could know what concentration is toxic , which @ @ @ @ @ @ @ experiments , ” said DeWitt .
“ Without that information , I end up wasting my time , my students ’ time , money , and animals ’ lives.
” For chemical companies , the delay may be the point .
Cat-and-mouse games with regulators slow the process of limiting chemicals , giving their manufacturers more time to profit from individual compounds before they are forced off the market .
If New Jersey has its way , however , Solvay ’ s days of denial and secrecy are numbered .

New Jersey is battling the chemical company Solvay Specialty Polymers over critical information about a recently identified group of PFAS compounds. The company has provided the New Jersey Department of Environmental Protection with studies showing that the chemicals, which it has released near its plant in West Deptford, are toxic. But Solvay has forbidden the state agency from sharing the details of the chemicals’ effects on health and the environment on the grounds that they are confidential business information.
On November 10, the NJDEP sued Solvay over the PFAS contamination, charging the chemical manufacturer with violating multiple environmental laws by releasing the toxic industrial compounds into soil, water, and air near the plant. The suit also demanded that the company allow the state agency to release information about the newly discovered chemicals’ effects on health and the environment.
Solvay had previously used other PFAS compounds, including PFOA and a molecule called PFNA, at its South Jersey plant. By 2010, the company stopped using those compounds, which remain in the body for years and are associated with multiple health effects, though it soon became clear that they had contaminated local drinking water. New Jersey has since regulated both compounds, setting among the most stringent safety levels in the country.
According to the recently filed suit, “Solvay has used — and continues to use — ‘replacement’ PFAS products at the Site, the identities of which it claims are confidential.” In April 2019, the company admitted to having used the unregulated chemicals for the past two decades, according to the suit. Solvay is also refusing to release information to the public about the basic structures of these unregulated replacement PFAS compounds as well as emissions information, safety data sheets, and studies that show the environmental and health risks they pose, arguing that they’re proprietary information.
In an emailed statement, Solvay said, “We have made considerable effort to engage in good faith with the NJDEP, including offering multiple proposals to launch a cooperative, expedited, and scientifically reliable investigation of our current process aids. We are surprised and disappointed that rather than pursue this expedited and cooperative route, NJDEP has decided to take the litigation path. We intend to defend ourselves vigorously against NJDEP’s inaccurate, overly broad, and meritless allegations. We remain committed to completing our investigation and remediation of PFAS impacts scientifically attributable to our West Deptford facility in compliance with applicable laws and regulations.”
The company did not respond to specific questions about its claims that toxicity information should be withheld from the public.
A Traumatic Awakening
People living in the area have good reason to be concerned about the chemicals. In June, an article in the peer-reviewed journal Science showed that the eight variations on the PFAS molecules were in the soil in New Jersey. Based on complex mapping, the authors — scientists from the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency and the NJDEP — showed that the soil contamination had spread far beyond the factory.
According to emails released under New Jersey’s open records law, Solvay gave the NJDEP two studies showing that the compounds are toxic. A June 25, 2019, email includes a description by a New Jersey toxicologist of the two studies, which found that Solvay’s PFAS chemicals cause liver damage in rats. Both studies showed that rats were affected by very low doses of the compound. The studies also suggest “a potential for human toxicity,” as NJDEP environmental specialist Erica Bergman wrote in the email.
The European Chemicals Agency also has scant information on the chemicals. The regulatory body describes one of the compounds in the group as being fatal if swallowed or brought in contact with skin, causing severe skin burns or eye damage or liver damage through prolonged or repeated exposure, and being toxic to aquatic life with “long-lasting effects.” But the European agency doesn’t include the studies on which these conclusions are based.
Whatever information the NJDEP possesses has led that agency to suggest that the “replacement” chemicals may be even more toxic than the original compounds, as it states in the recent lawsuit. After DuPont agreed to phase out its use of PFOA, which was based on an eight-carbon chain molecule, it then developed GenX, based on a six-carbon chain, and initially claimed that its replacement molecule was “more sustainable.” Other companies also began using shorter-chain PFAS compounds after it became clear that PFOA and other relatively long-chain molecules were extremely toxic and remained in the body for years. But the molecules recently found in the soil near the Solvay plant are longer than those of GenX — which turned out to be more toxic than PFOA in certain ways. The length of the molecules suggest that the Solvay compounds may be especially dangerous, according to the suit.
Whatever information NJDEP possesses has led that agency to suggest that the “replacement” chemicals may be even more toxic than the original compounds.
Although the very brief summary of the studies has become public, the state agency has refused to release the studies themselves or datasheets that summarize the hazards of the chemicals, which are sometimes known as CIPFPECAs. The Intercept asked the NJDEP for any information documenting the health and environmental effects of the recently discovered chemicals in mid-June. Two weeks later, spokesperson Larry Hajna sent an email acknowledging that “Solvay has conducted toxicology studies for CIPFPECAs and provided them to the DEP,” but he declined to provide the studies because the company provided them “as confidential business information that is not releasable to the public.” In October, the NJDEP denied an open records request for the studies by The Intercept “due to the circumstances surrounding the ongoing COVID-19 pandemic.”
New Jersey law gives the NJDEP authority to challenge confidentiality claims, but the agency did not respond to a question from The Intercept about whether it had done so. Federal law forbids companies from claiming such studies as confidential business information.
In its lawsuit, New Jersey asks the court to order Solvay to “withdraw its Confidential Business Information claims for its ‘replacement’ PFAS compounds, including the identities of those compounds; all information relating to discharges, emissions, or releases of such compounds into New Jersey’s environment; all health and safety information; and all information relevant to developing analytical methods and standards capable of measuring these compounds in the environment.”
While both the company and the state possess detailed information about how the chemicals affect health, the people most likely to suffer physical consequences from the contamination — the residents of West Deptford — do not.
“It’s really important to know if this stuff builds up in their blood and whether it has health effects,” said Tracy Carluccio, deputy director of Delaware Riverkeeper Network, who has been working to address PFAS contamination in New Jersey since 2005. “And the people living here don’t know.”
The company’s refusal to release the information about the chemicals’ health and environmental effects could deepen distrust among West Deptford residents that first blossomed in response to the 2013 discovery that Solvay, a trusted local employer, had contaminated local drinking water, according to Carluccio. “It was a traumatic awakening for people,” she said. “It was such a shock — people felt this was a responsible industry and then they’ve find out they’ve been poisoned.”
In its statement, Solvay wrote, “As a science company with sustainability at our core, Solvay meets applicable legal standards with respect to health, safety and the environment. We care deeply about the wellbeing of our employees and the communities in which we operate, and would strongly reject any allegations to the contrary.”
Ongoing Legal Battle
The suit is just the latest salvo in a legal battle between the company and the state. In March 2019, New Jersey sued Solvay along with four other companies, including DuPont and 3M, demanding that the companies pay the costs associated with cleaning up the PFAS chemicals they emitted into the environment. But Solvay has not complied with all the state’s requests, according to the most recent lawsuit.
In October, a coalition of businesses and trade groups, including 3M and the Chemistry Council of New Jersey, filed a legal challenge to restrictions the state had placed on PFAS, calling them “regulatory overreach.” While the membership of the Chemical Council of New Jersey is not public — and Solvay didn’t respond to a question about whether it belongs to the group — Chuck Jones, the site manager of the company’s West Deptford plant, is on the industry group’s board of directors. In the suit, the plaintiffs argue that compliance with New Jersey’s PFAS rules “will entail enormous additional costs.”
In the November suit, the state also noted that Solvay had “failed to provide” analytical standards for the chemicals. These official samples allow scientists to definitively confirm the presence of chemicals in the environment. “Without them we can’t give estimates or measurements of the concentrations of compounds in the water,” said P. Lee Ferguson, associate professor of civil and environmental engineering at Duke University. “And concentrations are critical for understanding health impacts.”
While withholding analytical samples makes the work of environmental scientists considerably more difficult, it is not unusual for companies to do so. “Unless it’s a PR benefit for them, they don’t have an incentive to work with the researchers,” said Ferguson. Residents of Alessandria, Italy, where another Solvay plant is located, have identified some of the same replacement PFAS compounds detected in New Jersey and have also reported difficulties obtaining an analytic standard for at least one of them, according to Viola Cereda, who lives in the area and is a member of a local group concerned about the contamination.
The work of environmental toxicologists is also complicated by being unable to access the science produced by industry. “Not having information on some of the toxicity-related testing that companies have done puts us as researchers behind the eight ball,” said Jamie DeWitt, an associate professor of pharmacology and toxicology at East Carolina University whose work shows that GenX suppresses immune response in mice. If testing done by companies was made public, “I could know what concentration is toxic, which would allow me to better design my experiments,” said DeWitt. “Without that information, I end up wasting my time, my students’ time, money, and animals’ lives.”
For chemical companies, the delay may be the point. Cat-and-mouse games with regulators slow the process of limiting chemicals, giving their manufacturers more time to profit from individual compounds before they are forced off the market. If New Jersey has its way, however, Solvay’s days of denial and secrecy are numbered.