The West, Texas fertilizer plant that blew up on April 17, killing at least 15 people, appears to have been claiming an arcane exemption that allowed it to avoid targeted workplace inspections and safety requirements and enter a “streamlined prevention program” with environmental regulators.... Read more»
The Environmental Protection Agency announced new safeguards Friday to prevent conflicts of interest or bias from tainting its science, including efforts to assess the dangers of toxic chemicals.... Read more»
A Democratic video says 240 House members “voted in 2011 that climate change was a ‘hoax.’ ” Not exactly. The 2011 vote was ultimately a referendum on who should set climate change policy — the Environmental Protection Agency or Congress. It was not a vote on whether climate change is a “hoax.”... Read more»
A week after a blast at a Texas fertilizer plant killed at least 15 people and hurt more than 200, authorities still don’t know exactly why the West Chemical and Fertilizer Company plant exploded. Here’s what we do know: The fertilizer plant hadn’t been inspected by OSHA since 1985. Its owners do not seem to have told Homeland Security that they were storing large quantities of potentially explosive fertilizer, as regulations require.... Read more»
Like many, the Fertilizer Institute, a trade group, has extended its condolences to the people of West, Texas, where a blast at a fertilizer plant Wednesday evening killed at least a dozen and injured about 200. The Washington-based institute, however, has lobbied against legislation that would require high-risk chemical facilities – including some of its members – to consider using safer substances and processes to lower the risk of catastrophic accidents and make such facilities less inviting to terrorists.... Read more»
As members of Congress raise questions, the Environmental Protection Agency’s inspector general is auditing the U.S. Chemical Safety Board’s investigative process.... Read more»
Lead poisoning has been recognized as a major health problem since at least the 1930s, but it continues to threaten many Americans, particularly children. The CDC issued new guidelines last week, estimating that roughly 535,000 youngsters may have unsafe levels of the toxic metal in their blood.... Read more»
The site near downtown Phoenix was designated a state superfund site after the Arizona Department of Environmental Quality determined it was contaminated with levels of lead and other chemicals that exceeded the health standards of the state and the federal government.... Read more»
Conservative foundations, multinational oil companies and a prescription drug maker were the most frequent sponsors of more than 100 expense-paid educational seminars attended by federal judges over a 4 1/2-year period, according to a Center for Public Integrity investigation.... Read more»
Arizona metal mining and manufacturing produced 84.5 million pounds of toxic chemicals in 2011, a 34 million pound increase over two years. It reflects a spike in mining, but while environmentalists say it shows a need for regulation, miners call the numbers needlessly frightening.... Read more»
Chemicals used to treat drinking water for millions of Americans may raise the risk of cancer and lead to other unintended health hazards, according to a report released Wednesday by the Environmental Working Group. Tucson’s water is considerably lower in chemicals than that from other Arizona utilities.... Read more»
U.S. environmental regulators have long assumed that reservoirs located thousands of feet underground will be too expensive to tap. As a result, American scientists and policy-makers often exempt these deep aquifers from clean water protections and allow energy and mining companies to inject pollutants directly into them.... Read more»
A consortium of federal and tribal agencies reported that a five-year, $110 million project to clean up uranium contamination in the Navajo Nation had addressed the most urgent risks there. But the report also said that much more work needs to be done to deal with the health threat.... Read more»
The Environmental Protection Agency is proposing steep reductions in emissions from the Navajo Generating Station, a coal-fired plant near Page. Salt River Project, the plant’s operator and a part-owner, says the equipment required for the reductions would cost up to $1.1 billion.... Read more»
Despite congressional failure to pass essential legislation to reduce carbon pollution and establish a renewable electricity standard, during its first term the Obama administration successfully adopted policies to protect public health from air pollution, lower oil consumption, and create jobs.... Read more»
Underground vast reservoirs hold billions of gallons of water suitable for drinking, according to the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency. Yet every day injection wells pump more than 200,000 gallons of toxic and radioactive waste from uranium mining into local aquifers.... Read more»
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