Pollution

"Humans are having an effect on Earth's ecosystems but it's not just the depletion of resources and the warming of the planet we are causing. Now you can add an over-abundance of nitrogen as another "footprint" humans are leaving behind. The only question is how large of an impact will be felt. In a Perspectives piece in the current issue of Science, Arizona State University researcher James Elser outlines some recent findings on the increasing abundance of available nitrogen on Earth."

"The Environmental Projection Agency on Friday said it is giving $500,000 to the city of Joplin, Missouri to clean up property contaminated by lead in a devastating May 22 tornado."

"Russia's vast tundra has been ravaged by oil companies unwilling to clean up their acts."

"Owners of thousands of U.S. homes tainted with foul-smelling Chinese drywall agreed to a legal settlement on Thursday with a German manufacturer."

"The U.S. Department of Agriculture released a document yesterday that got no attention on the nightly news, or almost anywhere, really. Its title, I'm sure you'll agree, is a snooze: National Nutrient Management Standard. Yet this document represents the agency's best attempt to solve one of the country's -- and the world's -- really huge environmental problems: The nitrogen and phosphorus that pollute waterways."

"Federal and state authorities today unveiled a legal settlement intended to finally complete the Deep Tunnel, the Chicago region’s massive flood- and pollution-control project."

"Former workers at a shuttered plant in Highland Park [Mich.] are charging that the plant likely contaminated an adjacent neighborhood and possibly some urban farms in the area with a highly toxic carcinogen."

"Environmental groups on Tuesday challenged the first attempted auction of offshore petroleum leases in the western Gulf of Mexico since the Deepwater Horizon disaster in 2010, filing a lawsuit in Federal District Court in Washington."

"An environmental monitor Tuesday identified 19 new sites across the United States where groundwater near coal-ash dumps from power plants was found to be contaminated with arsenic and other pollutants."