Latest Pollution News
US lawsuit seeks to protect habitat of endangered corals
SAN JUAN, Puerto Rico (AP) — An environmental group filed a lawsuit Monday accusing the U.S. government of failing to protect 12 endangered coral species across the Caribbean and the Pacific Ocean that have been decimated by warming waters, pollution and overfishing. The...
Australia steps toward making big polluters reduce emissions
CANBERRA, Australia (AP) — The Australian government took a major step toward implementing a key climate policy that would force chief greenhouse gas polluters to reduce emissions, with the minor Greens party pledging their support Monday. The center-left Labor Party administration...
Water contamination in Oregon could prompt EPA to step in
BOARDMAN, Ore. (AP) — The Environmental Protection Agency is urging Oregon to clean up water contamination from nitrates in the eastern part of the state, warning it could step in under the Safe Drinking Water Act in the absence of sufficient local action. It's been three decades...
Residents sue Louisiana parish to halt polluting plants
Residents of a Louisiana parish located in the heart of a cluster of polluting petrochemical factories filed a federal lawsuit Tuesday raising allegations of civil rights, environmental justice and religious liberty violations. The lawsuit names St. James Parish as the defendant and...
Nuclear contamination testing planned at St. Louis-area park
ST. LOUIS (AP) — The U.S. Army Corps of Engineers plans to test for radioactive contamination at a suburban St. Louis park that sits along a notoriously toxic creek, a Corps official said Tuesday. The Corps of Engineers is seeking permission from St. Louis County to test soil and...
EPA 'neighbor' rule cuts downwind pollution by power plants
WASHINGTON (AP) — A new “good neighbor” rule issued by the Environmental Protection Agency will restrict smokestack emissions from power plants and other industrial sources that burden downwind areas with smog-causing pollution they can’t control. Nearly two dozen states will have to cut...
EPA to limit toxic 'forever chemicals' in drinking water
WASHINGTON (AP) — The Environmental Protection Agency on Tuesday proposed the first federal limits on harmful “forever chemicals” in drinking water, a long-awaited protection the agency said will save thousands of lives and prevent serious illnesses, including cancer. The plan...
Where child cancer rose, some want polluted land left empty
TOMS RIVER, N.J. (AP) — The former Ciba-Geigy chemical plant poisoned the ground and water in Toms River, New Jersey, where the rate of childhood cancer cases rose significantly in the 1980s and 1990s. It was one of the nation's worst toxic waste sites, was added to the federal...
Beijing air quality plummets amid dust storm, pollution
BEIJING (AP) — Skyscrapers in Beijing disappeared into the haze and air quality plummeted as China’s capital was enveloped in a dust storm and heavy pollution on Friday. Concentrations of the tiny PM2.5 particles that can reach deep into the lungs and bloodstream entered a...
WA greenhouse gas allowance auction raises estimated $300M
SEATTLE (AP) — Washington state’s first auction of greenhouse-gas pollution allowances has generated an estimated $300 million as companies, consumers and the Legislature get a glimpse of the cost of emitting greenhouse gases that are increasing climate catastrophes. On Tuesday...
