"Complaints become part of the record only if a violation is found, but the state has only 14 inspectors for thousands of hog, poultry and cattle farms known as concentrated animal feeding operations, or CAFOs."
"While the average lifespan of a wastewater system is 40 to 50 years, many of the plants and pipes across the nation could be twice that old or more."
"Federal regulators have a range of solutions available to tackle the widespread contamination of farmland with toxic chemicals, according to a new report by US academics."
The enforcement of environmental laws suffered a dramatic collapse during the Trump administration’s first year, several studies have found. Even the most serious violations, typically referred to the Department of Justice, are left unpursued because of DOJ staffing declines. The latest Backgrounder has the details, a look at the administration’s rationale for the decline and the implications for the environment and public health.
"Donald Trump approved a federal emergency declaration Saturday related to a sewer main break north of Washington DC that threatens to put a stink on the US’s 250th anniversary celebrations in the US capital this summer."
"Political gridlock has allowed the situation to worsen for decades"
"Garbage has begun to pile up on street corners in the Cuban capital of Havana, attracting hordes of flies and reeking of rotten food, in one of the most visible impacts of the U.S. bid to prevent oil from reaching the Caribbean's largest island."
"A wastewater spill into the Potomac River that began last month now appears to be one of the largest in American history."
"Colorado officials are failing to require legally mandated water quality monitoring near concentrated animal feeding operations, allowing for widespread water contamination with animal waste, conservation groups allege in a new legal challenge to the state."
"The nation’s largest public utility says it now would prefer to keep operating two coal-fired power plants it had planned to shutter, changing course before a meeting of its board, which has a majority of members picked by the coal-friendly Trump administration."
