"An asbestos-like mineral used on western North Dakota gravel roads can cause changes in workers' lungs consistent with commercial asbestos exposure that could lead to breathing problems, a study has found."

"St. Louis-based Doe Run Resources Corp., the nation's largest lead producer, will pay a $7 million civil penalty and spend about $65 million more to resolve alleged violations of federal pollution laws at the company's facilities in Missouri, U.S. EPA and the Justice Department announced Friday."

After a tornado largely destroyed Greensburg, Kansas, three years ago, the town has made a mark for itself by rebuilding a sustainable infrastructure from the ground up.

"Cinders are dirty. Cinders are cheap. Cinders increase traction on snow- and ice-covered roads. What remains unclear is whether they do significant harm to the environment."

"The League of Conservation Voters (LCV) launched an effort Wednesday to tip the scales in the close Missouri Senate race against Rep. Roy Blunt (R) by playing up oil-industry contributions to the conservative lawmaker."

Those who sold their land to the massive Premium Standard hog-feeding operation in northern Missouri or went to work for it loved it. Those whose property was next door generally did not.

"A new report shows predictions for a warming climate could be devastating to duck production in the Prairie Pothole Region."

"A national environmental group with deep pockets and specialized legal expertise is joining the effort to block a permit for one of the [Kansas City] area’s biggest development projects."

"Kansas' largest electric company has agreed to upgrade pollution controls at its biggest power plant under a legal settlement announced Monday by the utility and federal officials."

Residents of Treece, Kansas, try to go forward as they wait for buyouts at a Superfund site created by years of lead and zinc mining.

Health problems, some fatal, linger for workers at the Bannister Federal Complex in south Kansas City. It is being closed by Honeywell, the latest in a series of contractors who have operated it for the Energy Department's nuclear weapons program. No nuclear weapons were made there -- only non-nuclear components. But some 785 toxic substances were used there. Despite a $65-million cleanup, workers feel abandoned.

Cleanup of toxic chemicals at 26 former Cold War missile sites in Kansas is an unfinished project.

"Iowa's outdated sewage treatment plants regularly dump excess pollution into rivers and streams that provide drinking water for up to 900,000 people and recreation for many more, a Des Moines Register analysis of state records shows."

"Congress authorized buying out the residents of the contaminated community of Treece [Kansas] on Thursday, and the Environmental Protection Agency signaled it's ready to move forward with emptying the town of people."

"More than 100 properties near the Doe Run Co.'s smelter have been recontaminated with dangerous levels of lead, a finding that comes less than a decade after regulators ordered the company to remove and replace polluted soil on the properties, the U.S. EPA said Monday."