Pollution

"A material that’s spread on parking lots and driveways in Jacksonville and nationally may be causing buildups of cancer-causing dust inside some homes, government researchers say."

"The old DuPont munitions plant that left behind a trail of lead and mercury, contaminated soil and water and a plume of toxic vapor still capable of leaking into at least 450 houses. The story has no end in sight."

"The U. S. military is long gone from bases in the Philippines, but its legacy remains buried here. Toxic waste was spilled on the ground, pumped into waterways and buried in landfills for decades at two sprawling Cold War-era bases."

"Chemicals used in Scotchgard and Teflon are regulated, but metal plating companies got a pass by Bush's EPA."

Both backers and critics of coal are often seeing EPA's crackdown on mountaintop removal mining in Appalachia as inconsistent and tentative. "To each side, it looks like the EPA hasn't made up its mind. Which would make now the time to yell as loudly as possible."

"In the first enforcement of its kind against a public agency, the (Calif.) State Water Board on Tuesday said it has reached a $6.2 million settlement with the city of Long Beach for extensive violations of regulations governing the storage of petroleum and waste oil in underground storage tanks."

"Facing a $5 million funding cut, the [Va.] state Department of Environmental Quality last summer scrapped the $365,000 PCB monitoring program."

"Kansas' largest electric company has agreed to upgrade pollution controls at its biggest power plant under a legal settlement announced Monday by the utility and federal officials."

"AUGUSTA, Maine — State environmental officials began making their case Monday for a $200 million cleanup of the HoltraChem site in Orrington, arguing that contaminants in five outdated landfills threaten groundwater supplies and the Penobscot River."