"If there is one policy left over from the Corzine administration that has been fully and enthusiastically embraced by Gov. Chris Christie, it is a program privatizing the cleanup of the tens of thousands of contaminated waste sites in New Jersey."

"The Environmental Protection Agency's inspector general reported this week that the EPA had improperly used an official website to promote ways of recycling the waste that's left over when power plants burn coal, commonly known as coal ash."

"The Obama administration has moved another step closer to blocking the largest mountaintop removal permit in West Virginia history, with a veto recommendation from the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency's regional administrator."

"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."

"Five ethanol facilities in Minnesota have been cited in the past 12 months for widespread air and water quality violations. They have paid more than $2.8 million in penalties and corrective actions."

"A South Carolina utility company that drew fire for allegedly tainting a local water supply with coal ash residue, a by-product of burning coal that is known to cause serious illness, recently purchased 987 acres in Colleton County to build a new landfill for the waste."

"Since the [Superfund] program was launched 30 years ago, only three of the 13 [hazardous waste] sites in Bergen and Passaic counties have been fully cleaned. Eight sites have been on the list for more than 25 years."

"Four environmental advocacy groups said Thursday that they have found widespread fraud in water pollution discharge monitoring by two of Kentucky's coal companies."

"For more than six years, a power plant that towers over Chicago's Southeast Side repeatedly has belched out smoke so thick it violates air pollution laws and aggravates respiratory illnesses for residents nearby."

"Even as they cheer U.S. EPA's first steps toward a drinking water standard for perchlorate, environmental and public health groups are warily predicting Pentagon and industry resistance to proposed limits on the rocket fuel chemical during a behind-the-scenes federal review process."

"For the first time a state government has submitted a petition to the federal government to set aside state-owned mountain ridgelines as unsuitable for coal surface mining."

"ARLINGTON, Texas — Mayor Robert Cluck wants to test the air near every new gas well in Arlington and a neighboring city has started its own air quality study."

"In a move that seems to fly in the face of its moniker -- the Garden State -- New Jersey is getting ready to put the pinch on fertilizer."

"University researchers said on Thursday they recently found alarming levels of cancer-causing toxins in an area of the Gulf of Mexico affected by BP's oil spill, raising the specter of long-lasting health concerns."

"The Environmental Protection Agency wants to regulate a toxic chemical used in rocket fuel that has contaminated drinking water supplies, reversing a decision made under the Bush administration."