Moms from Flint, Michigan and St. Louis, Missouri to Address EPA's Failure to Protect Children and Families

WASHINGTON, Feb. 8, 2016 /PRNewswire-USNewswire/ -- On Tuesday, February 9, a coalition of moms from Michigan and Missouri will hold a press conference to address EPA's failure to act on serious threats to public health in both communities.

Flint, Michigan is reeling from ongoing lead poisoning in its drinking water. EPA senior managers reacted to alarms sounded by its own staff by downplaying the risks and hiding the warnings about the lead levels from the public.

In Bridgeton, Missouri (a suburb of north St. Louis), families live near a radioactive Superfund landfill containing nuclear wastes that were illegally dumped during the Manhattan Project. The nuclear wastes are adjacent to an underground fire at a neighboring landfill. The Bridgeton/West Lake landfill site is owned by the Republic Services waste corporation, and workers there have no protection from either the radioactive wastes or the toxic emissions emitted by the landfill daily. EPA Administrator Gina McCarthy has refused for over two years to meet with the Just Moms St. Louis community group.

At the press conference, leaders from both the Just Moms St. Louis and the Flint-based Water You Fighting For community groups will discuss the environmental and public health catastrophes in both communities, and EPA's responses to date. They will also ask EPA Administrator McCarthy to meet with the Just Moms St. Louis members who traveled here to request that the EPA act on its authority under the Superfund Act to move families away from the landfill, as the agency has done previously with Love Canal and other communities.

WHAT: Press conference featuring Missouri and Michigan moms

WHEN: Tuesday, February 9, 2016 at 10 a.m. EST

LOCATION:  National Press Club

529 14th St. NW, 13th Floor, Washington, DC 20045 (Zenger Room)

Call-in number: (888) 223-4641  (International calls: 1-303-223-2682)

WHO: Dawn Chapman, co-founder, Just Moms STL
Karen Nickel, co-founder, Just Moms STL
Melissa Mays, Water You Fighting For (by phone from Flint, MI)
Lois Gibbs, Founder, Center for Health, Environment and Justice
Ed Smith, Missouri Coalition for the Environment
Gail Thackery, Franciscan Sisters of Mary

SOURCE MOMS