Trichloroethylene (TCE) killed Kari Rhinehart’s child: We’re being poisoned, the system knowingly protects polluters while not protecting “receptors” (people) from chemicals dumped into sewers, aquifers, on land. For years companies know, but don’t say, “Don’t drink the water.” When we ask questions, they lie. Former chemical engineer, now lawyer, Chris Nidel: “What they really don’t want, is to protect people from the poisons that they’re putting out into the community” that they made money on for decades.

snap from interview with Kari Rhinehard, epa slide solvents into sewer lines from soils, Advocate Like a Mother, One Parent’s Fight for the Truth, Migration of soil vapors via sewer into indoor air
map showing plume of TCE groundwater contamination, in Advocate Like a Mother One Parent’s Fight for the Truth, near schools and where homes were built over top of a chemical know by industry and regulators to intrude into indoor spaces via sewers and soils

Advocate Like a Mother; One Parent’s Fight for the Truth 53.34 Min. by Environmental Working Group (EWG), Sep 24, 2024

People come to environmental work in many different ways. Our first guest today, Kari Rhinehart, came to environmentalism after experiencing a parent’s worst nightmare, the loss of a child, due to a rare brain tumor. When other children in her community of Franklin, IN started getting sick, parents in the community began asking questions and putting data on a map. What they found shocked them. Contaminated drinking water.

Our second guest, Kari’s attorney, Chris Nidel, is a former chemical engineer turned environmental lawyer. People like Kari and her daughter, Emma Grace, are why Chris does the work that he does (and we wish there were more people like him!) Both Kari and Chris are incredible examples of how one person can have an enormous impact and affect change.

Want a deeper dive on today’s episode? Check out the links below: If It Was Your Child   / about  

Nidel & Nace, P.L.L.C. https://www.nidellaw.com/

Emma Grace Creative Arts Scholarship https://www.jccf.org/emma-grace-findl…

TCE Interactive Map (EWG) https://www.ewg.org/interactive-maps/…

EWG Tap Water Database https://www.ewg.org/tapwater/

Tap water of more than 19 million Americans polluted by ‘Civil Action’ carcinogen that EPA is poised to ban (EWG) https://www.ewg.org/news-insights/new…

Agency for Toxic Substances and Disease Registry (ATSDR) Health Consultation (EPA) https://19january2021snapshot.epa.gov…

What is Vapor Intrusion? (EPA) https://www.epa.gov/vaporintrusion/wh…

Search for Superfund Sites Where You Live (EPA) https://www.epa.gov/superfund/search-…

Health Consultation and Analysis, Franklin, IN (ATSDR, HHS, CDC) https://www.atsdr.cdc.gov/hac/pha/amp…

Ken Cook Is Having Another Episode every other week.   / kencookspodcast  https://www.ewg.org/  / environmentalworkinggroup  

Refer also to:

2013: US EPA Office of Solid Waste and Emergency Response Final Guidance for Assessing and Mitigating the Vapor Intrusion Pathway from Substance Sources to Indoor Air (External Review Draft)

2019: Pennsylvania: Frac’ing under investigation following surge of rare cancer cases

2019: Pennsylvania escalating youth cancers in frac fields, Excellent response to Marcellus Shale Coalition’s latest propaganda: “We get it Mr. Spigelmyer, your job is to sell fracking…. We know the facts on the carcinogens your industry produces as do you, the endocrine disrupting chemicals it hides, and all the gagged litigants who held the smoking guns.”

2020: Webinar Recording Now Available for Part 2: Dr. Shaina Stacy on Unconventional Natural Gas Development and Childhood Cancers. Part 3 on Oct 15 by David O. Carpenter, MD: Radioactivity in Frac’ing Fluid and Natural Gas, Potential Health Effects.

2021: Researchers increasingly believe exposure to trichloroethylene (used in frac’ing) is a cause of Parkinson’s Disease (fastest-growing neurological disorder in the world)

2021: Study: Increased cancer risk for oil patch workers and neighbours

2021: Another study: Preliminary Results Find Increased Cancer, Health Risks From Road Dumping Drilling Wastewater, Especially For Children; Arsenic, lead, manganese, nickel, hexavalent chromium in road dust contaminated by wastewater

2023: Pennsylvania, Three years on: Frac’ing health study into Ewing sarcoma and other rare forms of cancer results in cover-up rug. Secrets are a toxic industry’s (and enabling court’s) best friend.

2024: Musk kills child cancer research as his maid, Adolf Orange, chants Drill Baby Drill (studies show cancer linked to nearby oil and gas activity).

2024: Texas: 252 new cases of groundwater contamination in 2023, totalling 2,870 open cases (thousands more have been closed), some date back decades, many caused by the oil & gas industry.

2024: New research: Fossil fuel pollution irreversibly harms kids’ brains, including causing cancer. Imagine babies born into and growing up in bitumen, H2S and or frac fields (rampant in Alberta) where crews spew clouds of diesel fumes and facilities blast out mystery chemicals 24/7 for years on end as they frac and refrac and refrac. No wonder Albertans vote so stupidly.

2024: Athabasca Chipewyan First Nation councillor Mike Mercredi to industry’s self-regulator AER CEO Laurie Pusher: “You allow eight regulated cancer causing agents into the water. You’re allowing regulated murder…it’s slow industrial genocide. How many bodies? How many billions are you gonna be making before we’re all dead?”

2025: Orange Nazi insanity: “Safe drinking water” is woke, “diesel” too! Verboten, banned for use in USA Dept Agriculture! To prepare for frac’ers and Musk to dump toxic radioactive waste everywhere and anywhere?

2025: USA Nazi EPA MAGAfied to dump toxic radioactive waste everywhere the better to rot brains and give you and your kids cancer (especially since DOGE killed Medicaid and cancer research, and will steal your social security too): “The memorandum is essentially a wink, wink to coal and oil interests that they can pollute with what may be close to impunity.”

2025: USA Nazis killing the EPA the better to kill you with. Intelligence never was a feature of fascists, follow the Cult Leader is easier than using one’s own brain.

2025: Ron Gulla on living and dying frac’d: “Cattle dying, children sick, rashes on their bodies. The rare cancers … Ewing sarcoma … My wife got diagnosed with acute myeloid leukemia … She died. … all she wanted to do was live. I have seen this over and over in families. … It’s all organized crime.”

2025: EPA’s IRIS (Integrated Risk Information System, created in 1985) measures threat of toxic chemicals. Musk’s Nazis intend to kill it. Hello toxicity and frac pollution everywhere. Eliminating use of IRIS’ chemical assessments “completely off the deep end.”

This entry was posted in Global Frac News, Other Legal. Bookmark the permalink.