As summer turns to fall, we reflect on the rollercoaster that has been 2025. And while TIFO’s mission to use science to transform lives transcends the politics that increasingly divide the US and the world, we are not insulated from the impacts of US politics. Between January and April 2025, we lost approximately one-third of our 2025 funding. Cuts to the Department of State, the loss of USAID, and the withdrawal of obligated funds from EPA and NOAA had a significant impact on our modest organization.
But the quote hanging in our office still holds true: “It is not given to us to know which acts or by whom will cause the critical mass to tip towards an enduring good.” In February 2025, we received a grant from the Sigrid Rausing Trust (SRT) that breathed life into a project 18 months in the making. TIFO board members, staff, volunteers, and donors continue to energize us and fill us with hope every day – there is too much good in the world to give up on it.
We’ve scrambled to apply for funding from alternate sources (with the help of some great volunteer grant reviewers!) and will continue to balance efforts to identify funding with implementing meaningful projects that serve vulnerable communities globally. If you are aware of foundations or opportunities that could be beneficial to TIFO, please share the information or connections with us.
As many of you are aware, the EPA has terminated our funding for the Seven Generations Project with the Shoshone-Paiute Tribes (SPT). In April, with SPT’s support, we filed an appeal and continued to comply with the terms of the grant, holding onto the hope that the appeal process would restore what was rightfully awarded. In August, the EPA dismissed our appeal, citing the One Big Beautiful Bill Act—a bill that rescinded unobligated funds, but not obligated funds like ours. With support from SPT, we immediately filed a Petition for Reconsideration. The petition makes it clear that our award was already obligated and, therefore, cannot be legally rescinded. It explains why the project must continue: the Seven Generations initiative directly advances federal priorities, fulfills trust responsibilities to the SPT, and strengthens the Tribe’s ability to engage in federal reviews that affect their lands, health, and future. This loss of funds is not only unprecedented for us but also part of a broader wave of EPA terminations affecting nonprofits nationwide, disrupting community partnerships and undermining long-standing commitments. Without access to the resources we were awarded, we are limited in our ability to support the Tribe’s priorities and deliver the level of assistance the community deserves. Still, with creativity, strong partnerships, and the Tribe’s guidance, we are moving forward while pursuing every avenue of appeal.
We continue to support the Sho-Pai Tribes with their guidance. Outreach, especially with youth, is a priority for our partners at the Tribal Environmental Protection Program (TEPP). Casey and Whitney traveled to Owyhee, NV, in July for several activities, with a focus on engaging students.
In collaboration with the summer youth program, Casey and Whitney joined Racheal Thacker of TEPP, Owyhee teachers, and 23 students aged 14 and older on a field trip to the Rio Tinto Superfund site. Less than 15 miles from Owyhee as the crow flies, the Rio Tinto Copper Mine is generally recognized as one of the last mining boomtowns of the 20th century. The Rio Tinto Mining Company was formed in 1931 and became Nevada’s second-largest copper producer, producing approximately $23 million in copper before shutting down in 1947.
Mill Creek runs through the site and into the East Fork Owyhee River, which continues through Owyhee and the Duck Valley Indian Reservation. The mine contaminated the waterway with copper, zinc, and cadmium. Site remediation required the excavation of more than 800,000 cubic yards of tailings, which were disposed of in an on-site repository. Mill Creek was also reconstructed to facilitate fish movement. The site is now in the operations and maintenance phase of the CERCLA process.
We toured the Rio Tinto site with the students, asking them to identify areas for soil testing and discussing the mining process that occurred at the site. Significant was the presence of Tribal members who were able to share stories from when the mine and town were in operation, as well as what the contaminated area looked like before the cleanup occurred.
Students also participated in soil sampling at the Senior Center garden and surrounding areas. From the hydrocarbon plume to the discovery of Agent Orange use on the reservation, many community members are rightly concerned about what is in their soil. The Senior Center garden is near the current school, where a hydrocarbon plume is present.
Students collected samples from six locations, learning about and executing sampling protocols while discussing the community concerns that initiated the sampling. Samples were then sent to SGS Excelchem Laboratories, Inc., in California for analysis. We are incredibly grateful to the team at SGS for analyzing these samples for the Tribe at no cost. The lab has been a delight to work with, and their help will provide the Tribe with important information for the health of people utilizing those spaces.
We also met with Owyhee students to share the art contest we are holding in partnership with TEPP. The contest is for a t-shirt design honoring the Indigenous principle of Seven Generations. Three monetary awards are available for the overall design selected, as well as honorable mentions to designs in the 7-12 grade group and the K-6 grade group. TEPP will decide on the winning designs.
Left photo: Casey stands with Stephen Ackerman, Legislative Director for Congressman Russ Fulcher, after meeting to discuss the impacts of federal funding losses.
Right photo: Casey outside the U.S. Capitol building in Washington, D.C.
TIFO Visits Washington
Casey is currently in Washington, D.C. to participate in the 2025 Communities Summit, hosted by the Communities First Infrastructure Alliance. After a day of sessions to build strategies for engaging government representatives, Casey will meet with members of Congress and share how EPA’s termination of our grant has impacted the Sho-Pai community—more on this to come. Keep an eye on our social media channels!
The Idaho Department of Environmental Quality (IDEQ) has approved the air permit for the Stibnite Mine located at the headwaters of the South Fork of the Salmon River near McCall, ID. The mine is touted as essential to a cleaner, brighter future. But the permit, as approved, rewrites cancer protections in Idaho – and not for the better. This permit sets a precedent, allowing Idahoans to be exposed to 70 years’ worth of carcinogens in as little as six years. This is especially impactful for children, whose organs are still developing, take in more exposure per body weight than adults, and have underdeveloped detoxification systems. Carcinogens can accumulate in a child’s body over time and initiate biological changes that take years to manifest. TIFO co-founder Ian von Lindern has spent years on the frontlines of this permitting process. You can read an excerpt of his editorial published in the Idaho Capital Sun below.
Arsenic and Old Lies – Idaho Should Listen to MAHA about the Stibnite Mine
Dr. Ian von Lindern
The White House designated September as Childhood Cancer Awareness Month, declaring: “Tragically, over the last 50 years, rates of child cancer have skyrocketed by more than 40 percent. To reverse these devastating trends, my Administration’s Make America Healthy Again (MAHA) initiative is working towards getting toxins out of our environment, poisons out of our food supply, and ensuring our children are healthy and strong.”
Governor Little and AG Labrador didn’t get the President’s MAHA Memo. Idaho’s Department of Environmental Quality has quietly rewritten cancer protection rules to benefit Perpetua Resources’ Stibnite Gold Project, making our children the most vulnerable in the nation to pediatric cancer. These thirty-year-old rules had simultaneously protected Idaho’s children while minimizing regulatory burden. Now, to facilitate this mega-mine, both our children and our industries face unprecedented risks.
Despite last week’s ribbon-cutting PR, this isn’t about a “critical mineral” mine. Stibnite’s antimony ore is a by-product in the way of $18B in precious metals. The gold hides in arsenic-iron ores containing few strategic minerals. Each ounce of gold yields 200–1,000 pounds of arsenic waste. Between 500,000 to 1 million tons of arsenic, more than ever mined in Gem State history, will be disposed of behind a 450-foot earthen dam —half-again taller than our last ill-fated earth-filled Teton Dam. In 16 years, it will hold 120 million tons of waste — as much as Idaho’s entire Silver Valley, now a $1 billion Superfund site, produced in a century.
Buried in last week’s news was a favorable Court ruling in the citizens’ lawsuit seeking to restore our children’s cancer protections. This lawsuit targets just one percent of Stibnite’s arsenic waste: the portion emitted into the air. Even this small fraction is deadly enough to warrant strict limits – limits that are now gone.
Here’s how: In the first draft permit four years ago, DEQ and Perpetua sought to exempt 99% of arsenic emissions from regulation entirely. Citizens fought back forcing DEQ to relent. DEQ then granted Perpetua a tenfold increase in allowable cancer risks. But when Perpetua and DEQ finally admitted they still couldn’t meet the standard, they didn’t shrink the mine as the old rules required— they changed the rules.
You're Invited!
Join us for our Annual Celebration
Friday, October 17, 2025
5:30–9:00 PM
1912 Center, Moscow ID
Celebrate with us! Enjoy an evening of live music by the Jon and Rand Band, delicious food, an exciting raffle, and more fun surprises. Whether you’re a long-time supporter or new to our work, we’d love to see you there!
Please bring your friends/family/colleagues (the more the merrier!) and your dancing shoes to celebrate another impactful year together.
RSVP Today!
Allyson Beall King, Ph.D.
Allyson Beall King holds an MS in Environmental Science and a PhD in Environmental and Natural Resource Sciences from Washington State University. She is a Professor and, since 2022, has served as Director of the WSU School of the Environment. Before this role, she spent six years as the Associate Director for Undergraduate Studies within the school.
Her research focuses on applying system dynamics modeling to complex environmental challenges, including water resource management and the conservation of endangered species. More recently, her work has expanded to explore sustainable aviation fuel supply chains in Central American and Caribbean regions. System dynamics is central to her approach, offering insights into the feedback loops, time delays, and unintended consequences that often accompany environmental policies and decisions.
Allyson is also deeply invested in understanding how people learn. Her work sits at the intersection of sustainability, human well-being and justice, land use, and environmental impact, with a strong emphasis on organizational change. In addition to system dynamics, she has taught courses in Environmental Assessment, Environmental Justice, and Environmental Science at WSU, reaching more than 7,000 students since 2008.
She has served on the boards of three nonprofit organizations, including one term as President.
Katie Swanson, MPP
Katie holds a Bachelor of Science in Civil/Environmental Engineering from Purdue University and a Master of Public Policy from the University of Maryland. She currently serves as the Solid and Hazardous Waste Lead Planner at Seattle Public Utilities (SPU), working to advance the City of Seattle’s zero-waste vision.
Before joining SPU, Katie spent 15 years with the U.S. Agency for International Development (USAID), both as a Foreign Service Officer and in the Washington, DC headquarters. At USAID, she played a pivotal role in launching the Green Cities team, tackling global urban environmental challenges. She oversaw technical support and program management for the congressionally mandated Toxic Chemical Pollution directive, advancing pollution control efforts in high-risk areas. She also led an innovative program aimed at improving air quality management in partner countries through a cross-sectoral, integrated approach. Before joining USAID, Katie helped manage large-scale environmental remediation projects for CH2M Hill, including work on EPA Superfund sites, groundwater contamination at U.S. military installations, and heavy metal pollution associated with the Naval facility on Vieques Island, Puerto Rico.
“Working with Casey on USAID’s lead (Pb) initiatives was my first introduction to TIFO and its mission. Her dedication and deep expertise made a lasting impression. Through that experience, I learned about TIFO’s commitment to scientific integrity, locally-led implementation, and universal environmental rights - values that inspired me to join the board.” - Katie Swanson, TIFO Board Member.
The legacy of Soviet-era industrialization left vast areas of the former Soviet Union contaminated with heavy metals, pesticides, radioactive waste, and other pollutants. Communities across Central Asia, Eastern Europe, and the Caucasus are still grappling with contaminated soils, unsafe water, and toxic waste sites decades after the factories closed. The people bearing the health and environmental costs neither created the pollution nor shared in the economic gains that drove it. Instead, they are left with the burden of cleanup and the ongoing impacts on health, livelihoods, and ecosystems.
The Partnership for Environmental Health (PEH) is a collaboration between TIFO, the Environmental Health and Pollution Management Institute (EHPMI), and government partners. Collectively, we work to protect people living near some of the most contaminated sites in the former Soviet Union. Our first projects are in Kutaisi, Georgia, and Shymkent, Kazakhstan, where lead, mercury, arsenic, and other metals pose severe risks to families, especially children.
Shymkent, Kazakhstan
Once home to one of the Soviet Union’s largest smelters, Shymkent remains contaminated after 80 years of lead and zinc production. A 2011 study found 95% of local children had elevated blood lead levels. New testing shows soil lead far above safe standards. Such exposure causes permanent developmental and health impacts, threatening the city’s economic and social future.
Kutaisi, Georgia
The abandoned Litafoni Factory site, next to homes and the Rioni River, is heavily contaminated. Soil tests revealed lead and arsenic levels that were dozens of times higher than the health standards. Children and families pass through the site daily, exposing them to pollutants linked to developmental delays, cancers, and lifelong organ damage.
This summer, the PEH teams mapped contamination, collected hundreds of samples, and confirmed direct risks to children in both cities. We also engaged with government and university partners who are passionate about addressing the issues at these sites, which are known hazards for their residents. In a few weeks of collecting data and a few months of processing results, we’ve been able to develop a “menu” of options for government stakeholders to review and discuss. We’ll be working with government and community partners over the fall and winter to design interventions — such as remediation, safer site management, and public health programs — that can reduce exposures and give children healthier futures.
Over the past several years, we have seen a significant and long-overdue increase in attention for global lead poisoning, especially in low- and middle-income countries (LMICs). Casey Bartrem (TIFO Executive Director) spent 18 months supporting efforts at USAID to develop global programs aimed at ending childhood lead poisoning, before the Agency was abruptly terminated in January 2025. The USAID effort was critically important: an estimated one in every two children in LMICs has dangerous levels of lead in their blood, and in many communities, the exposure would warrant immediate health intervention in high-income nations.
Dramatic shifts in political and funding landscapes, including the withdrawal of USAID support, threaten recent progress on tackling childhood lead poisoning. There is a clear need for adapting scientifically rigorous methods used in wealthy nations for measuring lead in the environment and humans to work in low-resource settings. Next month, Casey Bartrem and Marina Steiner will present at a panel discussion at the Collegium Ramazzini Annual Conference in Carpi, Italy, giving perspectives on the global landscape and sharing the results of our new project in Shymkent, Kazakhstan.
Interventions designed to reduce lead exposures and adverse health outcomes must be thoughtfully and responsibly developed and implemented, with long-term efficacy in mind. This panel session will bring together individuals with knowledge of past efforts and current challenges, focusing on defining paths forward in developing holistic programs that maximize both impact and local ownership of interventions.
Earth Gives
TIFO Open House
121 S. Jackson St,
Moscow, ID
Grab a friend and come see the TIFO building. We will have light refreshments on hand and look forward to sharing the TIFO mission with you and new faces.
TIFO Annual Celebration
5:30 - 9:30 PM
Friday, October 17
1912 Center
412 E 3rd St
Moscow, ID
Dust off your dancing shoes and join us for an evening of fun, community, and celebration. (Event admission is free.) RSVP here.
BOISE: Dr. Ed Galindo Book Signing
5-8 PM
Thursday, Nov. 6
Rediscovered Books
180 N 8th St
Boise, ID
Join us for a book signing event with TIFO Board Member Dr. Ed Galindo. Talk with the author and kick off your winter reading with two incredible stories. We will have both of Ed's books - Children of the Stars and Dance of the Salmon - on hand. Learn more about Dr. Galindo here.
- Idaho conservation groups sue over air quality permit for Stibnite Mine. Idaho Capital Sun
- OPINION: To please Stibnite, Idaho gutted cancer protections for kids. Lewiston Morning Tribune
- Proponents tout Idaho gold-antimony mine as lawsuits threaten its prospects. Union Bulletin
- Indoor air contains thousands of microplastics small enough to penetrate deep into our lungs, study finds. CNN
- Lakes around the world are in decline. Here’s why – and what can be done about it. UNEP
- G.O.P. Plan on Pesticides Faces Revolt From MAHA Moms. NY Times
- EPA Moves to Roll Back PFAS Drinking Water Protections, Leaving Americans Exposed to Toxic Chemicals at the Tap. Environmental Protection Network
- Trump EPA rollbacks would weaken rules projected to save billions of dollars and thousands of lives. AP News
- The EPA proposes gutting its greenhouse gas rules. Here’s what it means for cars and pollution. NPR
- Perpetua Idaho Gold Mine Suit Sparks Clash Over $2B Project and Tribal Rights. USA Herald
- Zambian city may be most lead polluted place on Earth. NPR
- Zambia: South African Firm Transferring Toxic Lead. Human Rights Watch