Plains of Paradise, 34th of Childwinter, 525 M.E. (Deneb): The Guardian reports today that the Trump administration and House Republicans are attempting to repeal rules that require the country’s lead pipes to be replaced and to lower the limit on lead in water. The article claims the move, if successful, would prohibit the government from ever requiring lead-line replacement in the future or to lower lead limits. The Trump administration is also working to kill a recently implemented ban on trichloroethylene (TCE), a compound that is among the most toxic water pollutants.

As a former hydrogeologist with over 30 years in environmental cleanups, I can tell you that lead and TCE are two of the most common contaminants found in groundwater. The two contaminants were responsible for at least 90% if the remediation efforts that I oversaw and in most cases were still present, albeit at lower concentrations, after the cleanups were deemed complete.  A repeal of TCE and lead standards in soil and groundwater would not only endanger the health of many Americans, but it would also put a lot of environmental geologists and engineers out of work. 

Meanwhile, microplastics contamination was found in 99% of seafood samples in a peer-reviewed study by Portland State University, and a separate study published in the journal Nature Medicine, found rapidly rising levels of micro- and nanoplastics in human brain tissue from dozens of postmortems carried out between 1997 and 2024. The researchers also found the microscopic particles in liver and kidney samples.

Finally, yet another study reports that the Greenland ice sheet, the second largest body of ice in the world, is cracking apart more rapidly than ever before as a response to climate change.

Here's what I'm not seeing much news coverage about: Around 1,000 protesters gathered on Saturday along Atlanta's Buford Highway, the immigrant hub of metro Atlanta, to call for an end to the targeted operations by immigration agents that began last week. Waving flags from Mexico, Cuba, Guatemala and Puerto Rico, and carrying signs condemning deportations, hundreds of community members lined both sides of the corridor in front of Fiesta Plaza around noon.