Pollution

"The company promoting the controversial and beleaguered Pebble mine project lost a legal battle Friday when a federal judge threw out one of its lawsuits against the Environmental Protection Agency."

"Deborah Swackhamer, a professor of environmental health sciences at the University of Minnesota, decided last year to investigate the chemistry of the nearby Zumbro River. She and her colleagues were not surprised to find traces of pesticides in the water."

"The state Department of Environmental Protection might have used incomplete and inaccurate test information to decide whether chemicals leaking from a Marcellus Shale wastewater impoundment and a drill cuttings pit contaminated a water well and springs in Washington County."

"The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency announced a proposal to eliminate mercury pollution from dental offices nationwide."

"Pollution investigators have found toxic compounds in groundwater below the Delaware Air National Guard base matching those that prompted shutdowns this summer of the city of New Castle's entire three-well public supply network and two Artesian Water Co. wells."

"As a domestic energy boom driven by hydraulic fracturing spreads, so could strip-mining for sand needed for the controversial production process, introducing risks to water, air, public health and property values, according to a report issued Thursday."

"Procter & Gamble, the maker of Crest, has just pledged to eliminate microbeads from its toothpastes by March 2016."

"The Obama administration announced a new 5-year plan for the Great Lakes on Wednesday that will accelerate efforts to address toxic pollution, invasive species and farm runoff and restore plant and wildlife habitat."

"TUCSON, Ariz. — Authorities are testing water from the San Pedro River in southern Arizona that may be contaminated with toxic waste that traveled north after a massive copper mine spill in Mexico this summer."

"At first glance it appears to be nothing more than a natural mound swathed in sumac and buckthorn, and shadowed by cottonwoods, like much of the land fronting the Mississippi River gorge. But that mound, actually a dump site, has become the focus of ongoing concerns about pollutants left by the Ford Motor Co. at its former factory site in St. Paul."