Great Plains (IA KS ND NE MO SD)

Health problems, some fatal, linger for workers at the Bannister Federal Complex in south Kansas City. It is being closed by Honeywell, the latest in a series of contractors who have operated it for the Energy Department's nuclear weapons program. No nuclear weapons were made there -- only non-nuclear components. But some 785 toxic substances were used there. Despite a $65-million cleanup, workers feel abandoned.

Cleanup of toxic chemicals at 26 former Cold War missile sites in Kansas is an unfinished project.

"Iowa's outdated sewage treatment plants regularly dump excess pollution into rivers and streams that provide drinking water for up to 900,000 people and recreation for many more, a Des Moines Register analysis of state records shows."

"Congress authorized buying out the residents of the contaminated community of Treece [Kansas] on Thursday, and the Environmental Protection Agency signaled it's ready to move forward with emptying the town of people."

"More than 100 properties near the Doe Run Co.'s smelter have been recontaminated with dangerous levels of lead, a finding that comes less than a decade after regulators ordered the company to remove and replace polluted soil on the properties, the U.S. EPA said Monday."