"The US Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) has backed off its re-assessment of cancer-causing nitrates despite decades of research suggesting the contaminant is more harmful than previously thought and that nitrate pollution is at crisis levels in US drinking water."
"The agency spent hundreds of millions on lead remediation in Omaha, home of the nation’s largest residential Superfund site. New soil tests by the Flatwater Free Press and ProPublica show that many yards still have harmful levels of lead."
"In 2023, the Environmental Protection Agency under the Biden administration proposed creating stronger cybersecurity guidelines to better safeguard the nation’s water supply from hackers. ... The E.P.A. rescinded the order, however, after Republican-led states and industry groups sued to block its enforcement."
"Less than three months ago, Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) official Jess Kramer outlined a series of promises dubbed “PFAS OUT,” aimed at eliminating a family of toxic compounds from drinking water, and touted the Trump administration’s wider commitments to protecting Americans from contamination by the chemicals."
Summertime and the livin' is smoggy. American air may be clearer now than when the Clean Air Act was passed in 1970, but pollutants still abound. Heat and sunlight stoke chemical reactions that exacerbate health hazards. And worsening wildfires mix in harmful smoke. The latest TipSheet has more than a dozen story ideas and reporting resources.
"Progress Village was established decades ago to provide affordable housing for Black residents near Tampa. The phosphogypsum stack, containing the toxic waste of fertilizer production, is right next door."
"The scope of cyberattacks on U.S. water systems has grown to include at least seven states and may be far wider, officials and experts warned, as the authorities raced to safeguard the nation’s water supply against an assault that increasingly appeared to be the work of Iran."
"Trump’s order keeping an Orlando coal plant online renews environmental justice concerns over who pays AI’s pollution bill." "The fight over Stanton Unit 1 illustrates how America's AI boom could prolong coal pollution that has historically fallen hardest on Black communities."
"A proposed expansion of an Elk Valley Resources’ coal mine in southeast British Columbia is moving through the environmental assessment process despite concerns over pollution. Decades of coal mining in the valley has led to harmful selenium concentrations and loads downstream, in British Columbia and the U.S. states of Montana and Idaho."
"In a fiercely divided Washington, there is bipartisan anger at the stalled progress in cleaning up toxic chemicals at military bases. The delays have emerged as a rare issue uniting Democrats and Republicans in their criticism of the Pentagon."
