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<font size="1"><a href="https://theintercept.com/2020/10/20/tear-gas-environmental-impact/">https://theintercept.com/2020/10/20/tear-gas-environmental-impact/</a>
</font><h1 class="gmail-reader-title">Department of Homeland Security Sued for Chemical Weapons Use</h1>
<div class="gmail-credits gmail-reader-credits">Sharon Lerner - October 20, 2020<br></div></div>
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<div class="gmail-moz-reader-content gmail-reader-show-element"><div id="gmail-readability-page-1" class="gmail-page"><div><div><p><u>Environmental groups sued</u>
the Department of Homeland Security and its acting secretary, Chad
Wolf, in federal district court today over their use of what the suit
called “a vast arsenal of weapons” on Black Lives Matter protesters in
Portland. The weapons deployed by the federal agents during what the
Trump administration dubbed “Operation Diligent Valor” pose potentially
grave health and environmental hazards, according to the suit, which the
ACLU Foundation of Oregon filed on behalf of the Northwest Center for
Alternatives to Pesticides, the Willamette Riverkeeper, Cascadia
Wildlands, Neighbors for Clean Air, and 350PDX.</p>
<p>The Department of Homeland Security did not immediately respond to a request for comment.</p>
</div><p>Among the weapons mentioned in the <a href="https://www.documentcloud.org/documents/7273780-Dkt-1-Complaint-for-Declaratory-and-Injunctive.html">complaint</a> are rubber bullets; CS tear gas; OC spray, also known as pepper spray; and <a href="https://theintercept.com/2020/10/10/portland-tear-gas-chemical-grenades-protests/">hexachloroethane smoke grenades</a>. As The Intercept <a href="https://theintercept.com/2020/10/10/portland-tear-gas-chemical-grenades-protests/">reported</a>
earlier this month, the U.S. military began phasing out the smoke
grenades years ago because of their toxicity. Along with a thick smoke,
the grenades release chemicals associated with short- and long-term
human health effects, including nausea, vomiting, central nervous system
depression, kidney and liver damage, and cancer.</p><div><div><div><p><img alt="" src="https://theintercept.com/wp-uploads/sites/1/2020/10/FedTeargasPDX_Oct17_DougBrown_00010-1000x715.jpg" style="margin-right: 0px;" width="452" height="323"></p><p><img alt="" src="https://theintercept.com/wp-uploads/sites/1/2020/10/FedTeargasPDX_July22_DougBrown_00002-1000x715.jpg" style="margin-right: 0px;" width="452" height="323"></p></div></div><p><span>(Left/Top)
Federal agents deploy tear gas in the neighborhood near the Immigration
and Customs Enforcement building in SW Portland on Oct. 17, 2020.
(Right/Bottom) A federal agent uses a device to emit what is believed to
be HC gas in front of the Edith Green – Wendell Wyatt Federal Building
in downtown Portland on July 16, 2020.</span><span>Photo: Doug Brown, ACLU of Oregon</span></p></div><div><p>The
groups detail the serious risks of CS tear gas, citing a 2014 report
that showed it had “a profound effect on the respiratory system” and
that U.S. Army recruits exposed to the tear gas in basic training had a
nearly 2.5 times greater risk of acute respiratory illness. The
complaint lists symptoms associated with the gas, including eye
injuries, chronic pain, cough, neurodegeneration, and menstrual
irregularities. And it presents evidence that “[e]ven at low
concentrations, CS gas presents a risk of irreversible or other serious,
long-lasting adverse human health effects.”</p>
</div><p>According to the suit, the Department of Homeland Security
violated the National Environmental Policy Act by failing to consider
the “potentially severe environmental and human health impacts” of the
weapons. The National Environmental Policy Act requires federal agencies
to weigh the impacts of proposed actions that “significantly affect the
quality of the human environment.” And the suit lays out evidence that,
in addition to imperiling protesters, who have described weight loss,
lung damage, exhaustion, and other symptoms after being exposed to gas
and smoke released by the federal agents, the weapons may harm the
environment. Several of the chemicals released by the munitions are
harmful to aquatic life, according to their safety data sheets.</p><div><div><p><img src="https://theintercept.imgix.net/wp-uploads/sites/1/2020/10/FedTeargasPDX_July22_DougBrown_00003-1000x667.jpg?auto=compress%2Cformat&q=90" alt="FedTeargasPDX_July22_DougBrown_00003" style="margin-right: 0px;" width="452" height="301"></p><p class="gmail-caption">Federal
agents deploy tear gas and fire other munitions in front of the federal
courthouse in downtown Portland on July 16, 2020.</p>
<p class="gmail-caption">
Photo: Doug Brown, ACLU of Oregon</p></div></div><div><p>The
federal agents used so much tear gas and other weapons during the
face-offs with protesters that its residue was visible on streets,
sidewalks, and plants near the federal courthouse and ICE detention
center where they were used. There are at least seven stormwater drains
near the Justice Center and the ICE detention center, where the agents
were stationed, and at least two of the drains feed directly into the
nearby Willamette River. According to the suit, plaintiffs have
identified “tear gas and other chemical munitions floating over the
Willamette River” and have seen DHS agents “power washing” the residue
from tear gas and other chemical weapons into the storm drains. The
environmental groups conclude that the chemicals have likely already
entered the nearby Willamette River.</p>
<p>While officials in Portland have acknowledged that residue from tear
gas and other chemical munitions used by the Department of Homeland
Security entered the city’s storm drains downtown, the federal agency
has not provided a list of tear gas and chemical munitions used against
protesters to the Portland Bureau of Environmental Services, according
to the complaint. It also says that the federal government has denied
the city environmental agency access to a catch basin behind the federal
agents’ barrier where they want to test stormwater there for the
presence of chemicals.</p>
<p>Operation Diligent Valor began when Department of Homeland Security
Agents descended on Portland in July. But DHS agents remain in the city
and have used chemical munitions as recently as October 18, when a
thermal fogger <a href="https://twitter.com/MasonLakePhoto/status/1317869903345414144">released</a>
gas into a crowd of protesters gathered outside an ICE facility. The
suit asks the court to stop DHS from using such weapons in Portland
until its violation of the law is corrected.</p></div></div></div></div>
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