Pollution

"Companies and others responsible for some of America's most toxic waste sites are using a federal health agency’s faulty reports to save money on cleanups, defend against lawsuits and deny victims compensation, a Reuters investigation found."

"Scientists believe artificial light may be affecting natural ecology of plant life by creating extended photosynthesis"

"Teton County residents have opened an additional front in their fight with Wyoming officials regarding development of state school trust land near Teton Village, this time challenging the approval of a commercial incinerator that opponents claim poses a grave health, fire and economic risk to locals."

"Oklahoma’s oil industry pays into a voluntary fund to clean up oil wells, but many drillers opt out. The money that has been refunded to these companies in recent years could have restored an estimated 1,500 orphan well sites."

"The US Environmental Protection Agency has issued an emergency suspension of the common weedkiller DCPA, also known as Dacthal, it said Tuesday, the first time the agency has used its emergency suspension authority in 40 years."

"A famine-stricken camp in Sudan's conflict-torn Darfur region is facing a significant new influx of displaced people while floods threaten to contaminate water and sanitation facilities, according to satellite imagery published on Friday."

"Belgium has withdrawn from the mixed relay triathlon race on Monday and Switzerland has had to mix up its roster after athletes from both countries fell ill following the initial triathlon races last week."

"Brian Harrington entered the Illinois Department of Corrections system in 2007 at age 14, sentenced to 25 years in prison. ... He remembers the toilet water being brown—and sometimes the drinking water, too. He recalls the tap water’s sewer smell and the black specks swirling, then settling, in his cup."

"Due largely to lagging prevention efforts in the Midwest, the low-oxygen area of the Gulf of Mexico is larger than expected this year, prompting fish and shrimp to flee nearly 4 million acres of habitat and killing off bottom-dwelling species."

"Sea lions are stranding themselves on a long stretch of the California coast and showing signs that they may have been poisoned by a bloom of harmful algae, experts said Thursday."