Pollution

"Black, Latino and Asian Americans face higher levels of exposure to fine particulate matter from traffic, construction and other sources".

"Nearly every source of the nation’s most pervasive and deadly air pollutant disproportionately affects Americans of color, regardless of their state or income level, according to a study published Wednesday. The analysis of fine-particle matter, which includes soot, shows how decisions made decades ago about where to build highways and industrial plants continue to harm the health of Black, Latino and Asian Americans today.

"Key lawsuits that could define the reach of the Clean Water Act are working their way through federal courts — despite Biden administration attempts to stop them so it can craft its own regulations. The cases concern what waterways and wetlands qualify for federal protections, a question that has befuddled judges for two decades."

"Thirteen U.S. oil refineries released the cancer-causing chemical benzene in concentrations that exceeded federal limits last year, according to government data published by the green group Environmental Integrity Project (EIP) on Wednesday."

"The Senate voted on Wednesday to effectively reinstate an Obama-era regulation designed to clamp down on emissions of methane, a powerful, climate-warming pollutant that will have to be controlled to meet President Biden’s ambitious climate change promises."

"Marine scientists say they have found what they believe to be more than 25,000 barrels that possibly contain DDT dumped off the Southern California coast near Catalina Island, where a massive underwater toxic waste site dating back to World War II has long been suspected."

"By some accounts, Pennsylvania has the worst accumulation of old, unplugged, ownerless oil and gas wells in the nation. There are an estimated 200,000 of them, and the cost to plug them could exceed $6 billion. The state’s orphan well plugging program has been underfunded for decades, but it is primed to take advantage of an influx of cash."

"Next week, before the nation's highest court, nearly a century's worth of tension between the United States and Guam over the cleanup of a massive waste site on the remote Pacific island will come to a head."

"Heavy rains have dispersed highly toxic dioxins throughout the Sanders Beach neighborhood for years. Now residents hope the Biden administration will help put an end to their misery."

"A major United Nations report will declare that slashing emissions of methane, the main component of natural gas, is far more vital than previously thought."

"Persuaded by testimony from the leaders in the Glades agriculture community that sugar burning is not harming their residents, the Florida House on Thursday sent to the governor a bill that gives the agriculture industry protection from lawsuits related to long-term health damage."