"The Biden administration on Tuesday is set to move to protect one of the world’s most valuable wild salmon fisheries, at Bristol Bay in Alaska, by effectively blocking the development of a long-disputed gold and copper mine there."
Iconic critters like salmon, orca and wolves. Climate controversies like natural gas greenwashing and carbon auctions. And wildfire fallout like “smoke-a-geddon.” These are just some of the wide array of stories worth covering as environmental journalists scan Cascadia, the huge area encompassing Washington, Oregon and Idaho, and stretching from Alaska to Utah. This special TipSheet, part of our 2023 Journalists’ Guide to Energy & Environment, outlines top issues in the region, offering insights, resources and story angles.
"In hindsight, it’s clear that something was very wrong in this suburban town at the Jersey Shore, where many people worked at or lived near a chemical company that was flushing toxic waste into waterways and burying it in the ground."
"After years of sending leachate from the Coventry landfill downstream to a municipal wastewater treatment plant in Vermont, Casella Waste Systems is building an on-site facility to treat its runoff. Amid rising public concern over PFAS and new or forthcoming regulations, an increasing number of landfill operators across the country are considering similar moves."
"There’s now more than just smoke hanging around the site of an underground landfill fire near Birmingham. In the two days since the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency showed up to take control of the scene, the area has been abuzz with EPA trucks, bulldozers and excavators moving in to begin putting out the fire."
"An underground fire at an Alabama landfill has continued to pollute the air in eastern parts of the Birmingham region more than 50 days after a fire began underground, according to air quality monitors."
"Israel's new government will abandon the country's tax on single-use plastic plates and utensils, Finance Minister Bezalel Smotrich said on Sunday, despite environmental concerns."
"[New Mexico] officials on Tuesday released a draft permit that includes tougher provisions for the U.S. government to meet if it wants to continue dumping radioactive waste from decades of nuclear research and bomb-making in the New Mexico desert."
"For many, recycling feels like a tangible way to personally combat climate change and to positively affect the environment. That's partially because of decades of public environmental campaigns, advertisements and even school education aimed at increasing recycling. But the reality is that only a small fraction of plastic is ultimately recycled."
"More than a dozen dead or dying bald eagles were found near a landfill in Inver Grove Heights, suspected victims of poisoning by eating carcasses of animals that were chemically euthanized and dumped at the landfill, according to wildlife officials."
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