"Climate change and invasive mussels may have made Lake Erie a more inviting host for toxic bacteria in recent years, suggesting that ambitious goals are needed for reducing phosphorus runoff that feeds large blooms like the one that forced a temporary tap water shutdown in and near Toledo, Ohio, scientists said Wednesday."
"Texas environmentalists faced off in court this year against a coal-fired power plant with more than 6,500 alleged exceedances of the federal Clean Air Act limits on opacity, an indicator of fine airborne soot."
"Bay’s improved harvest coincides with disasters in Gulf to reverse long-term trend of local processors bringing in bivalves from the South."
"McCORMICK — Open-pit gold mines have left a toxic and costly legacy for taxpayers in South Carolina, where contamination is seeping into creeks and groundwater two decades after the mines closed."
"A highly flammable byproduct flowed from oil tankers into an area stormwater system for at least a year before state regulators inspected the problem."
"Loren 'Buzz' Kiskadden first noticed a water problem at his house trailer in rural Amwell Township, Washington County, while using a hose to fill a wading pool for his grandchildren in June 2011. 'A gray sludge was filing up the bottom of the pool. It was just nasty,' said Mr. Kiskadden, 55, in testimony before the state Environmental Hearing Board last week in Pittsburgh. 'I shut the water off and told the kids not to get in it.'"
"The Obama administration is preparing to unveil an air pollution rule shortly after the midterm elections that could be among the most costly and controversial in history."
"An environmental assessment of the joint Chattanooga-Hamilton County firing range on Moccasin Bend indicates that the nearly 40 years of spent bullets at the site may be causing lead-laden surface water to flow into the Tennessee River."
"The Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) sent potential changes to the standard for ground-level ozone to the White House Office of Management and Budget on Wednesday."
Federal agencies are still grinding forward on decisions about disclosure of often-toxic ingredients pumped into the ground during "fracking" to produce gas and oil. Significant decisions may come eventually from the Interior Department, the EPA, and the Obama White House. But don't bet on any courageous decisions until after the November election.
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