The Washington Post - 13.08.2019

A4 EZ RE THE WASHINGTON POST.TUESDAY, AUGUST 13 , 2019

lows local economies to thrive,”

Barrasso said.

Conservationists took the op-

posite view, decrying the changes

as a major rollback of the stron-

gest wildlife conservation law in

the world, credited with saving

dozens of species of flowers, in-

sects and animals.

“They’re trying to make it diffi-

cult, if not impossible, to protect

unoccupied habitat,” said Rebec-

ca Riley, legal director for nature

programs at the Natural Resourc-

es Defense Council. “We know

climate change is going to force

animals to move to new habitats.”

For example, she said, the west-

ern snowy plover that nests on

the coast is being affected by sea

level rise. “As the sea rises, it will

need to move inland. If we can’t

protect those areas because it’s

not occupied today, that habitat

might not be there when they

need it,” Riley said.

Some lawmakers also opposed

the changes.

“Today, the Trump administra-

tion issued regulations that take a

wrecking ball to one of our oldest

and most effective environmental

laws, the Endangered Species

Act,” Sen. Tom Udall (D-N.M.)

said in a statement. “As we have

seen time and time again, no

environmental protection — no

matter how effective or popular —

is safe from this administration.”

Speaking during a telephone

news conference, Healey said the

new rules “continue the Trump

administration’s agenda to ben-

efit oil and gas... and allow the

federal government to ignore the

devastating impacts of climate

change, ignore the U.N. biodiver-

sity report and the alarming crisis

facing a million species.

“These changes violate the pur-

pose of the Endangered Species

Act,” Healey added, “and sounds

like the plan of a cartoon villain

and not the president of the Unit-

ed States.”

darryl.fears@washpost.com

by an existing law that needs to be

updated.”

Republicans have argued that

recovering listed species takes too

long. Of more than 1,900 listed

since 1973, only 47 have been

recovered. About 1,200 animal

and 700 plant species are now

listed, according to the Environ-

mental Protection Agency.

Eighteen species, including the

American wolverine and Taiwan-

ese humpback dolphin, are under

consideration for an endangered

or threatened listing. An addi-

tional 18 are under consideration

for delisting because their popu-

lations grew.

“We must modernize the En-

dangered Species Act in a way

that empowers states, promotes

the recovery of species, and al-

makers and conservationists not-

ed that it could stir up opposition

to proposals to rescue fragile pop-

ulations.

“There is no reason to do this

except to deliberately inflame

public opposition to the species

or to the act as a whole,” said Bob

Dreher, a vice president for con-

servation at Defenders of Wild-

life.

A Republican senator who has

fought in the past to change the

act applauded the administra-

tion’s efforts.

“The Trump administration is

taking important steps to make

the Endangered Species Act work

better for people and wildlife,”

said Sen. John Barrasso (Wyo.).

“These final rules are a good start,

but the administration is limited

opening it up for oil and gas

exploration or other forms of de-

velopment.

Another rule change stripped

away language that said a secre-

tary “shall make a [listing] deter-

mination solely on the basis of the

best scientific and commercial

information regarding a species’

status,” regardless of its costs.

By removing that sentence, the

administration allows the interi-

or and commerce secretaries to

consider the economic impact of

a listing. Potential threats to busi-

ness opportunities and other

costs can now be factored by the

government and shared with the

public.

Administration officials said

those considerations will not af-

fect listing decisions, but law-

of species to human activity and

showed how those losses are un-

dermining food and water secu-

rity, along with human health.

More plants and animals are

threatened with extinction now

than at any other period in hu-

man history, the report said.

Only Congress can change an

act, but rule revisions reflect an

administration’s interpretation

of a law and how it should be

applied. The 1973 Endangered

Species Act passed unanimously

in the Senate and by an over-

whelming margin in the House.

Under the administration’s

new rules, it would have been

nearly impossible to designate

the polar bear as threatened in

2010 because of the loss of sea ice

in the Arctic, one of the fastest-

warming areas in the world.

Nearly 200,000 square miles of

barrier islands in Alaska were

listed as critical habitat.

Officials relied on climate mod-

els to predict how warming would

affect the polar bear habitat more

than 80 years into the future. The

new rules call such predictions

into doubt and said officials can

now determine effects only in

what it described, vaguely, as the

“foreseeable future.”

“When you start reaching out

to 70 or 80 years” to project

climate effects on the planet and

wildlife, the amount of certainty

about what could happen “starts

to degrade significantly,” said

Gary Frazer, assistant director for

endangered species at Fish and

Wildlife, a division of the Interior

Department.

The new rules also limit the

area of land that can be protected

to help species recover and sur-

vive. Land that plants and ani-

mals occupy is now set aside for

their protection, in addition to

areas that they once lived in or

might need in the future.

Under the new rules, critical

habitat that is not currently occu-

pied might not be protected,

ing the regulatory burden on the
American public, without sacri-
ficing our species’ protection and
recovery goals,” Commerce Secre-
tary Wilbur Ross said in a state-
ment. “These changes were sub-
ject to a robust, transparent pub-
lic process, during which we re-
ceived significant public input
that helped us finalize these
rules.”
The rules will affect future list-
ing decisions, officials said, and
are not retroactive. They will go
into effect 30 days after being
published in the Federal Register.
Within hours of Monday’s an-
nouncement, the state attorneys
general of California and Massa-
chusetts joined a conservation
group, Defenders of Wildlife, in
declaring the changes illegal and
vowing to challenge them in
court.
“You can anticipate that we will
see many states join this action,”
said Maura Healey, attorney gen-
eral of Massachusetts. “The way
this was done was illegal under
federal laws, and this is an admin-
istration that needs to be held
accountable.”
Jamie Rappaport Clark, who
led the Fish and Wildlife Service
during the Clinton administra-
tion, said the people who have
spent careers trying to recover
and protect the nation’s endan-
gered species find the Trump ad-
ministration’s move “devastat-
ing.”
“There is nothing biologically
positive about the rules,” she said.
“We will argue that they are ille-
gal.”
In May, a U.N. report on world
biodiversity found that 1 million
plant and animal species are on
the verge of extinction, with
alarming implications for human
survival.
The report, written by seven
experts from universities around
the world, directly linked the loss

ROLLBACK FROM A

BY CLARE FIESELER

AND BRADY DENNIS

New Jersey’s largest city began
handing out cases of bottled wa-
ter Monday to residents with lead
water service lines, more than
two years after it began wrestling
with high levels of lead in its tap
water.
“I understand people’s frustra-
tion,” Newark Mayor Ras Baraka
(D) said in an interview, adding
that he has a lead line at his home
and that he and his pregnant wife
have been using one of the tens of
thousands of water filters the city
began distributing last fall.
“This is a very serious matter
to me. We don’t take this lightly
at all,” he said, adding, “Am I
worried? Yeah, I am worried. And
we are going to do what we can to
get to the bottom of this.”
Baraka’s comments came after
the latest twist in Newark’s long-
running water problem. Tests in
recent days showed that the wa-
ter filters the city provided to
residents might not be adequate-
ly blocking lead, according to
federal and local officials.
The findings prompted Peter
Lopez, the Environmental Pro-
tection Agency’s regional admin-
istrator who oversees New Jersey,
to write to Baraka and New
Jersey’s top environmental offi-
cial Friday, saying it was “essen-
tial” that officials warn residents
of the findings and begin provid-

ing bottled water “as soon as

possible” to people whose homes

have lead service lines.

On Saturday, Baraka held a

news conference to inform resi-

dents about the failed filters. He

urged pregnant women and chil-

dren under 6, in particular, to

avoid using water from their taps

for drinking or food preparation

“until we figure out what the hell

is going on.”

“The results of these tests leave

us with many questions, and we

must expand our testing to un-

derstand what is happening,” Ba-

raka said, adding that officials

are also working with the filter

manufacturer, Pur, to determine

why two of three home filters

that were tested failed. Since

October, the city has distributed

roughly 40,000 filters. Baraka

also said the city will continue to

provide water testing for resi-

dents and free blood tests for

children under 6.

On Sunday, Baraka and Gov.

Phil Murphy (D) announced four

locations where residents could

begin picking up bottled water —

paid for by the state, for now —

while officials expand testing of

filters. Residents qualify for the

free bottled water if they have

lead service lines, use city-pro-

vided filters, and live in the part

of the city considered most at-

risk for water problems.

At least 30 Newark schools had

their drinking fountains shut off

in March 2016 after tests re-

vealed high lead levels, and stu-

dents and staff were provided

bottled water. In 2017, Newark

exceeded the federal “action lev-

el” of 15 parts per billion of lead

during testing of residential

homes.

Newark officials insisted the

water was safe and that the key

problem lay in thousands of

aging lead service lines that carry

water from city mains to homes.

“The city’s water is not contami-

nated with lead,” the head of

Newark’s water department said

in a statement last summer, ac-

cusing activists of making a “false

comparison” with the water cri-

sis in Flint, Mich.

Baraka also has rejected com-

parisons to Flint, saying Newark

officials have taken the required

steps to try to fix its water quality

violations, have kept the public

notified and have worked to help

homeowners replace their lead

service lines.

Still, in a notable shift last fall,

the city began handing out filters

and announced it would alter its

water treatment.

In an open letter to President

Trump last year requesting help,

Baraka estimated that it would

take $70 million to replace lead

lines — a massive expense for a

city that has long struggled with

poverty.

Even low levels of lead expo-

sure can cause lasting damage to

the developing brains and ner-

vous systems of young children.

The law requires that if a

certain number of homes tested

in a city exceed the federal limit, a

utility must take remedial steps

to improve its corrosion controls

— and begin replacing lead pipes.

Last month marked the fifth

consecutive time in two years

that Newark’s mandated water

testing exceeded federal limits

for lead.

An ongoing lawsuit against the

city, brought by a group of school-

teachers and the environmental

advocacy group Natural Resourc-

es Defense Council, has been

pushing for a citywide distribu-

tion of bottled water since Au-

gust 2018.

“We’re glad that EPA is finally

weighing in after at least two

years of this lead health problem

being clear,” said Erik Olson,

health and environment pro-

gram director at the NRDC.

“While the EPA proposal to re-

quire bottled water for some

residents in Newark is a good

first step, we don’t know whether

this would be just a temporary

measure, and many thousands of

other residents of the city still

will not be protected by this

partial action.”

On Monday, the commissioner

of New Jersey’s Department of

Environmental Protection, Cath-

erine McCabe, wrote to the EPA

asking for more help. She said

state and local officials relied on

the EPA’s assurances that the

filters Newark handed out to

residents were reliable. She also

warned that the city and state

“have limited emergency water

supplies and financial resources,

and we do not yet know how long

we will be able to provide bottled

water.”

“Given the concerns EPA has

here, we hope that EPA will offer

assistance promptly,” wrote Mc-

Cabe, an EPA veteran.

News that the water filters

handed out by the city might not

be working caused frustration

among some residents.

“I was beginning to trust the

[city-provided] filters for cook-

ing. And now I’m being told the

filter may not be working? I feel

so lost and confused,” said Shaki-

ma Thomas, who lives in New-

ark’s West Ward with her 5-year-

old son.

“For far too long, Newark has

tiptoed around a comprehensive

response to their lead-in-water

crisis,” said Mona Hanna-Attisha,

the Michigan pediatrician who

helped bring to light the severity

of Flint’s water crisis. “Newark is

what keeps me up at night now.”

clare.fieseler@washpost.com

brady.dennis@washpost.com

Newark begins giving residents bottled water amid ongoing lead problems

JULIO CORTEZ/ASSOCIATED PRESS

Newark Mayor Ras Baraka, left, has rejected comparisons to Flint,

Mich., saying the city has taken steps to try to fix the problems.

Trump administration takes final steps to weaken 1973 law protecting wildlife

WHITNEY SHEFTE/THE WASHINGTON POST

The Endangered Species Act is credited with saving the grizzly bear and dozens of species of flowers,

insects and large animals. Conservationists are decrying new changes as an assault on the law.

BY TAYLOR TELFORD

las vegas — As Sen. Ron Wyden
(D-Ore.) toured the Voting Village
on Friday at Def Con, the world’s
hacker conference extraordi-
naire, a roomful of hackers ap-
plied their skills to voting equip-
ment in an enthusiastic effort to
comply with the instructions they
had been given: “Please break
things.”
Armed with lock-pick kits to
crack into locked hardware, Eth-
ernet cables and inquiring minds,
they had come for a rare chance to
interrogate the machines that
conduct U.S. democracy. By laying
siege to electronic poll books and
ballot printers, the friendly hack-
ers aimed to expose weaknesses
that could be exploited by less
friendly hands looking to inter-
fere in elections.
Wyden nodded along as Harri
Hursti, the founder of Nordic In-
novation Labs and one of the
event’s organizers, explained that
almost all of the machines in the
room were still used in elections
across the United States, despite
having well-known vulnerabili-
ties that have been more or less
ignored by the companies that sell

them. Many had Internet connec-

tions, Hursti said, a weakness that

savvy attackers could abuse in

several ways.

Wyden shook his head in dis-

belief.

“We need paper ballots, guys,”

Wyden said.

After Wyden walked away, a

few hackers exchanged confused

expressions before figuring out

who he was.

“I wasn’t expecting to see any

senators here,” one said with a

laugh.

In three years since its incep-

tion, Def Con’s Voting Village —

and the conference at large — has

become a destination not only for

hackers but for lawmakers and

members of the intelligence com-

munity trying to understand the

flaws in the election system that

allowed Russian hackers to inter-

vene in the 2016 election and that

could be exploited again in 2020.

This year’s programming in-

volved hacking voting equipment

as well as panels with election

officials and security experts, a

demonstration of a $10 million

experimental voting system from

the Pentagon’s Defense Advanced

Research Projects Agency, and a

“part speed-dating, part group

therapy” session where state and

local election officials gathered

with hackers to hash out challeng-

es of securing elections.

Participants spoke often of the

need for thorough auditing of

election results, increased fund-

ing and improved transparency

from vendors. The call for paper

ballots was a common refrain. At

the time of the 2018 midterm elec-

tions, Delaware, Georgia, Louisi-

ana, New Jersey and South Caro-

lina had no auditable paper trails.

“Election officials across the

country as we speak are buying

election systems that will be out of

date the moment they open the

box,” Wyden said in the Voting

Village’s keynote speech. “It’s the

election security equivalent of

putting our military out there to

go up against superpowers with a

peashooter.”

House Democrats have intro-

duced two bills that would require

paper records to back up voting

machines, mandate post-election

audits and set security standards

for election technology vendors.

But Senate Majority Leader Mitch

McConnell (R-Ky.) has repeatedly

blocked votes on the bills, saying

election security is the province of

the states.

Last month, the Senate Intelli-

gence Committee — of which

Wyden is a member — released a

report detailing how Russian

hackers probably targeted all 50

states between 2014 and 2017. Al-

though the report did not find

evidence that Russian actors tam-

pered with vote tallies on Election

Day, the committee said that

hackers “exploited the seams” be-

tween federal and state authori-

ties and that states weren’t suffi-

ciently prepared to handle such

an attack.

Local election officials at Def

Con echoed these concerns. Joel

Miller, an election auditor in Linn

County, Iowa, and a repeat Def

Con attendee, said he has had to

file Freedom of Information Act

requests and a Help America Vote

Act complaint to try to get an-

swers about security failures in

the state’s voter registration sys-

tem from Iowa’s secretary of state.

Russian hackers attempted to in-

filtrate the system in 2016, and

while an overhaul of the 14-year-

old system is impending, officials

have said it will not be replaced

before 2020.

“We don’t know what’s going on

with the system,” Miller said. “I’m

a former IT director, and I know

more about what I don’t know, but

that’s almost worse than if I didn’t

have a tech background. I’m

aware there’s more threats out

there than we can handle.”

A spokesman for Iowa Secre-

tary of State Paul D. Pate defended

the security of the state’s systems

and noted that Pate’s chief of staff

also attended Def Con this year.

“Iowa’s system is secure and we

work every day to ensure it re-

mains secure,” the spokesman,

Kevin Hall, said in an emailed

statement.

The Voting Village has faced

extreme pushback in the past

from voting equipment compa-

nies and government officials,

who have argued that the free-for-

all environment at Def Con

doesn’t replicate the realities of

security on Election Day. The Na-

tional Association of Secretaries

of State condemned the exercise

as “unrealistic” last year, and Elec-

tion Systems & Software, one of

the major voting machine ven-

dors, sent a letter to its customers

making the same argument.

“Physical security measures

make it extremely unlikely that an

unauthorized person, or a person

with malicious intent, could ever

access a voting machine,” ES&S

wrote last year.

The company did not immedi-

ately respond to requests for com-

ment about this year’s event.

Hursti said that vendors have

used legal threats to “create a

chilling effect” on research of

their equipment, and that they

were “actively trying to shoot the

messengers” rather than reckon

with the weaknesses in their

products. That lack of coopera-

tion has left organizers to search

for machinery to use at the Voting

Village: Some was rescued from a

warehouse where the roof col-

lapsed, while others were snagged

in government surplus auctions

or on eBay, Hursti said.

The first primary votes of the

2020 election will be cast in the

Iowa caucuses in just a few

months, but it’s impossible to

patch the gaping security holes in

U.S. election security by then or

even by Election Day, Hursti said.

“Everyone claiming we can fix

this by 2020 is giving a false sense

of security,” Hursti said.

taylor.telford@washpost.com

At Def Con, hackers and lawmakers examine holes in U.S. election security