Environmental Health

"North Carolina officials are still scrambling to restore water in areas pummeled by Hurricane Helene nearly two weeks ago."

"Hurricane Milton plowed into Florida as a Category 3 storm Wednesday, bringing misery to a coast still ravaged by Helene, pounding cities with winds of over 100 mph (160 kph) after producing a barrage of tornadoes, but sparing Tampa a direct hit."

"The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency has reached a tentative $4.2 settlement with a firm that owned and operated a major East Coast refinery that was shuttered after an explosion and fire in 2019."

"Black residents of Louisiana’s St. James Parish asked a federal appeals court on Monday to overturn a lower court ruling and give them the opportunity to argue at trial that local land-use policies are racist and have concentrated polluting industrial plants in their neighborhoods."

"Rodent studies given to US regulators by insecticide makers close to 20 years ago revealed the chemicals could be harmful to the animals’ brain development – data worrisome for humans exposed to the popular pesticides but not properly accounted for by regulators, according to a new research report published this week."

"About a decade after the Flint water crisis, the Biden administration is requiring the removal of most of the nation’s lead-contaminated water pipes within 10 years."

"When he was just 18 years old, Emmanuel Akatire traveled about 500 miles from his home in Zorko, Ghana, to Accra, the nation’s capital, to find the only work he could — sifting through vast piles of discarded electronics to find valuable scrap metal. A week’s worth of painstaking, often dangerous work, earns him the equivalent of about 60 U.S. dollars."

"Though utilities’ mission is to provide clean water, their trade groups for decades have often fiercely opposed initiatives to improve quality"

"The justices will consider whether a lower court improperly tossed approvals for a temporary storage facility in Texas."

"The Supreme Court has its sights set on another bedrock environmental law, following recent efforts to take on Clean Water Act and Clean Air Act protections."