Pollution

Large feedlots would no longer have to report toxic emissions under a rule proposed Dec. 21, 2007, by EPA.

New Jersey filed a lawsuit Feb. 19, 2008, challenging the US-EPA's December 2007 rule that utilities could decide for themselves whether their air pollution increases are significant enough to require detailed record-keeping.

For more than seven months, the nation's top public health agency has blocked the publication of an exhaustive federal study of environmental hazards in the eight Great Lakes states.

EPA still has not complied with requests from two Congressional investigating committees for documents on its decision to deny California and some 16 other states waivers allowing them to regulate tailpipe greenhouse emissions.

Henry Waxman (D-CA), the chairman of the House Oversight Committee, has vowed to investigate EPA's decision to prohibit states from regulating greenhouse emissions.

EPA has proposed exempting farms from a law protecting the public from toxic air pollutants. Environmental groups have objected.

Vehicle fuel economy is a major component of the ongoing energy and carbon discussions, so it's helpful to know how the current models are performing.

EPA is required to update its standard for each of the six main "criteria" air pollutants every five years.

Scientists advising the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency on air pollution issues are criticizing EPA higher-ups for ignoring their scientific counsel. Specifically, they are accusing the Bush Administration of excising science from the process the agency uses to determine how clean the air we breathe should be. The Clean Air Scientific Advisory Committee (CASAC) challenges EPA administrator Stephen L. Johnson.

Along with the usual spooky and spine-tingling sights we have come to expect in caves, another scary inhabitant is turning up — contaminants such as PCBs, pesticides, dioxins, gasoline, fertilizers, sewage, and caffeine. These pollutants, which are leaching into caves from the surface and groundwater, can pose a threat to the delicate underground environments that are prized by many, and that provide benefits to people, plants, and animals on the surface. The presence of these contaminants underground also serves as a blunt reminder of how pervasive pollutants are.