Pollution

"More than 1,000 kilometers (621 miles) of shoreline and 44,000 square kilometers (17,000 square miles) of open water in Lake Huron and Lake Michigan could be at risk if oil spilled from twin 63-year-old underwater pipelines that run below the Straits of Mackinac, according to a study released Thursday by the University of Michigan Water Center and supported by the National Wildlife Federation’s Great Lakes Regional Center."

"TransCanada has increased the estimated size of an oil spill near Freeman to a "potential volume” of 16,800 gallons, or 400 barrels."

"Gov. Peter Shumlin has announced that the state will test additional manufacturing sites around Vermont for PFOA, a suspected carcinogen that's been found in North Bennington and Pownal."

"Waste leaching from frack disposal wells are the likely source of a spike in endocrine-disrupting compounds in downstream waterway—a troubling sign given the roughly 36,000 disposal sites across the U.S."

"AES Corp. settled a lawsuit accusing the power-generating company of allowing one of its units to dump coal ash on beaches in the Dominican Republic, which allegedly caused a spate of birth defects in children."

"A key section of the Keystone pipeline has been shut down due to an oil spill in South Dakota, TransCanada said on Monday."

"Industry groups are challenging President Obama’s rule to protect workers from exposure to harmful silica dust."

"With public officials across the nation under fire for downplaying the health risks posed by lead water pipes, Mayor Rahm Emanuel's administration is moving to start testing tap water in the homes of children poisoned by the brain-damaging metal."

"A federal judge in New Orleans has granted final approval to an estimated $20 billion settlement, resolving years of litigation over the 2010 BP oil spill in the Gulf of Mexico."

"As Southern California continues to battle the nation’s worst smog, most members of a powerful regional panel that enforces air pollution regulations can breathe relatively easily. Nine of the 13 members of the South Coast Air Quality Management District live close to the ocean in Los Angeles or Orange counties, where ozone, the hallmark pollutant of summer smog, exceeds federal health standards fewer than 10 days a year."