Pollution

"More than seven years after Congress mandated that EPA swiftly alert the public to surges in lead contamination in drinking water, EPA’s inspector general has found the agency still isn’t ready to roll out an action plan."

"The number of companies weighing possible PFAS settlements in a nationwide case is likely to grow as a federal court moves into the next phases of litigation."

"An updated rule targets pollution from ash dumps, but it’s up to companies that own them to propose steps to protect groundwater."

"Researchers using high-tech air monitoring equipment rolled through an industrialized stretch of southeast Louisiana in mobile labs and found levels of a carcinogen in concentrations as much as 20 times higher than previously estimated, according to a paper published Tuesday in the journal Environmental Science & Technology."

"In unincorporated Marion County, around 800 to 900 households—approximately 40 percent of all homes—do not have access to public drinking water, according to government estimates, a figure one water expert called “staggering.”"

"The Environmental Defense Fund, entering controversial territory, will spend millions of dollars examining the impact of reflecting sunlight into space as global warming worsens."

"City officials are taking their first public step toward cleaning up hazardous waste in a popular park after a local graduate student last year called out a 45-year comedy of errors by federal, state and local agencies that allowed the dumped drums and chemicals to escape remediation."

"Every time you take a breath, you could be inhaling microplastics."

"A major Canadian oil field in the province of Saskatchewan would likely have reached the end of its life eight years ago. But thanks to carbon capture and storage, a technology widely touted by the oil and gas industry and some political leaders as a key solution for climate change, the field could still be producing 1.5 million barrels of oil annually by the year 2100."

"Lobby groups representing water utilities, as well as the chemical and manufacturing industries, have filed court challenges to a Biden administration rule that seeks to limit the presence of toxic chemicals in drinking water."