Pollution

"An explosion and fire at Philadelphia Energy Solutions refinery has people concerned about hydrogen fluoride."

"A floating device designed to catch plastic waste has been redeployed in a second attempt to clean up a huge island of garbage swirling in the Pacific Ocean between California and Hawaii."

"An area of little to no oxygen could pose a threat to marine life in the Chesapeake Bay this summer. Ecologists from the University of Maryland Center for Environmental Science and the University of Michigan predict the "dead zone" could be about 2.1 cubic miles — making it one of the largest in the past 20 years."

"The Wilderness Society is suing the Trump administration to try to force the release of documents on its decision to lift restrictions on mining upstream from the Boundary Waters Canoe Area Wilderness in northern Minnesota."

"In 1969, Cleveland's Cuyahoga River burned for the last time. It was a short blaze, under control within 30 minutes and fully extinguished within two hours."

"The United States and Japan joined 18 other countries yesterday in backing the creation of a new international "framework" to curb ocean plastics after rejecting a stronger Canadian proposal on the same topic last year."

"Documents that the federal Environmental Protection Agency tried to keep confidential show that its staffers criticized how Minnesota regulators drafted a key permit for the planned PolyMet copper-nickel mine, and concluded that the permit would violate federal law because it lacked pollution limits based on the state’s water quality standards."

"The nation’s largest public utility on Thursday agreed to dig up and remove about 12 million cubic yards (9.2 million cubic meters) of coal ash from unlined pits at a Tennessee coal-burning power plant."

"Senators at a Clean Water Act hearing expressed interest in reopening the law to clarify which wetlands and waterways it protects. But that effort would likely be stymied by the fact that participants in the Environment and Public Works Committee hearing, including ranking member Tom Carper (D-Del.), expressed confusion over basic concepts of Clean Water Act jurisdiction."