"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."

"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."

"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."

"Illinois is failing to crack down on water pollution from large confined-animal farms, the Obama  administration announced Wednesday in a stinging rebuke that gave the state a month to figure out how to fix its troubled permitting and enforcement programs."

"Federal officials began a sweeping crackdown on pollution in the Chesapeake Bay on Friday - threatening to punish five mid-Atlantic states with rules that could raise sewer bills and put new conditions on construction."

"The tension between drillers in Pennsylvania's gas-rich Marcellus shale and communities trying protect natural resources has reached a fevered pitch in Clinton County, where a zoning hearing board resigned rather than allow a water withdrawal station at a scenic bend of the West Branch of the Susquehanna River that draws kayakers, hang gliders, hunters and fly fishermen."

"Great Lakes pollution is getting worse because sewage systems are outdated and Ontario’s north is turning into a Wild West for miners and forestry companies, warns Environmental Commissioner Gord Miller."

The gas-drilling boom that is sweeping Pennsylvania is demonstrating the power of money to overcome landowners' reluctance and influence legislators and regulators. This fall, a gusher of gas-industry political campaign donations is spewing.