Blog
On that Pussy Thing
I spent half the day trying to think about what I wanted to write, and nothing came. Nothing came because all the blood in my body is pumping to that …
Bloodletting/Blood-lead-ing
It’s happening again. Lead poisoning from historic contamination, children’s lives irreparably harmed — in a Midwestern low-income community overseen by the same EPA office that presided over the Flint lead …
Public Health Advisory: On Water and Waste
Because he is a physician working in Vermont, yesterday my husband received a public health advisory from the state Department of Health, concerning PFOA in private drinking water wells in …
Confessions of a Former Environmental Regulator
How many times did I sit at my desk and worry about something I had missed, maybe a report I hadn’t read closely enough, or a number in a table …
Trespassing: Witnessing
Parking lot of the vacant Mack Molding facility in Pownal, Vermont, formerly Warren Wire Manufacturing. Presumed source of perfluorooctanoic acid (PFOA) contamination in Pownal’s water supply. The air smells green …
On Knowing and Not Knowing
I had a number of cases over the course of my brief regulatory career that involved environmental atrocities. A metal finishing facility, for instance, that had once discharged its acidic …
Excuse Me, Mr. McKibben
I was behind Bill McKibben in the grocery store today. Bill McKibben! We were in the express line of the local Hannaford’s, me holding pesto and organic bananas, some birthday …
A Walk in Hoosick Falls
Forsaken storefronts line the street, mostly empty but for my reflection in the windows. A few merchants remain — a children’s resale shop, a hair salon — glimpses of pride …
When Water Hurts
I am a public utility girl, born and raised on municipal water — and I, like millions of Americans, took solace in the systems that were established to ensure the …
Moral Hazard: It’s More than Economics, Stupid
I have spent much of my adult life trying to understand the science behind environmental issues. Like the cause-and-effect relationship between industrial effluent outfalls and subsurface contamination. Why, for example, …
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