Great Plains (IA KS ND NE MO SD)

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"Iowa's outdated sewage treatment plants regularly dump excess pollution into rivers and streams that provide drinking water for up to 900,000 people and recreation for many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."

Missouri "allowed tourists at the Lake of the Ozarks to swim in waters that officials knew were infested with harmful E. coli bacteria for two weeks at the beginning of the summer tourist season, Gov. Jay Nixon said Wednesday."

Right now, America's Bread Basket relies on an aquifer that's nearly drained. And, many say, it will dry up if farmers keep pumping water from it at the current rate. The Environment Report's Devin Browne reports the government plans to pay farmers as one way to get them to cut water use.

"A state board voted unanimously Thursday to approve an air quality permit for a $10 billion oil refinery that Hyperion Resources wants to build in southeastern South Dakota."

"Iowa’s three largest public universities have determined that their coal ash disposal method does not pose a risk to the public health, a decision some say was made without sufficient evidence or regard for experiences with contamination in neighboring states."

"Missouri Attorney General Chris Koster is investigating whether a state agency violated the law by not releasing data showing E. coli bacteria above safe levels in the Lake of the Ozarks."

"For generations, people in Leadwood have lived near huge piles of dangerous, lead-contaminated mining waste. Now the EPA has decided the answer to the problem is to pile on more lead-tainted earth. To many folks, that makes no sense at all."