Pollution

"“You can have the best law on the books. But if it's not enforced, it's meaningless.”"

"After initially resisting, the U.S. Navy will comply with Hawaii’s order to remove fuel from a massive underground storage tank facility near Pearl Harbor blamed for contaminating drinking water, officials said Tuesday."

"The Environmental Protection Agency is taking its first major action to address toxic wastewater from coal-burning power plants, ordering utilities to stop dumping waste into unlined storage ponds and speed up plans to close leaking or otherwise dangerous coal ash sites."

"The chemical is effective at keeping roads free of snow and ice, but it also has damaging consequences, according to a growing body of research."

"Five environmental and community groups have filed a civil rights complaint with the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency alleging the Providence Water Supply Board’s infrastructure and lead pipe replacement work disproportionately increases the risk of lead exposure for residents of color."

"Simultaneous high levels of the two pollutants, which harm human health, are occurring with increasing frequency, researchers say."

"Dangerous levels of two air pollutants, ozone and smoke, are occurring in tandem with increasing frequency over widespread parts of the Western United States where millions of people live, researchers said Wednesday.

The two harmful pollutants are a result of worsening wildfires and extreme heat, and researchers suggest the increase is linked to climate change.

"The U.S. has more than double the amount of abandoned oil and gas wells than previously thought, according to a preliminary analysis by the Interior Department."

"The Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) announced Monday [Dec. 27] that it will require more facilities to report the release of a carcinogenic gas called ethylene oxide (EtO), after previously not requiring them to do so."

"In the village of Paguate as June Lorenzo’s grandmother knew it growing up, orchards and fields of wheat and corn carpeted nearby hillsides. Streams traversed a verdant valley where people hunted and grazed sheep near the small farming community in Laguna Pueblo. This was before a massive mine cratered the nearby land and altered the skyline. Lorenzo has looked for old photos of that landscape, but they’re hard to find. That place exists now only in stories from elders."

"Hawaii’s Department of Health on Monday upheld the governor’s order requiring the Navy to drain massive World War II-era fuel tanks after oil leaking from the aging facility contaminated Pearl Harbor’s tap water."