"The Environmental Protection Agency proposed Thursday to include microplastics and pharmaceuticals on a list of contaminants in drinking water for the first time, a step that could lead to new limits on those substances for water utilities."

"When pollution gets bad enough in the rivers supplying Iowa’s largest city with drinking water, it costs Des Moines around $16,000 a day to run a special system to filter out dangerous nitrates. It’s a fact of life in the agriculture-dependent state — and climate change is making the water quality problem even worse."

"When former top Environmental Protection Agency official Judith Enck noticed a cavalcade of chemical and plastics industry lobbyists visiting the agency’s Washington headquarters in February, she wondered what could be up."

"A new study of pesticide exposure in Peru finds a mechanistic association between exposure and cancer, and shows how “complex pesticide mixtures” can contribute to the development of cancer in people, even at exposure levels currently deemed safe."

"Work to get lead out of Garden State homes has surged in recent years, fueled by an influx of federal pandemic relief money and urgency from Newark’s drinking water crisis. But it’s been years since Newark largely dealt with its water problems, with the subsequent calm taking attention away from lead issues."

"A new label promises single-use cups are recyclable. But that doesn't mean they actually get recycled."

"Gov. Newsom’s administration has proposed ending a program that’s brought a gigawatt of grid relief online. Lawmakers want to know what will replace it."

"It’s been a decade since farmers began to learn that contamination from PFAS unknowingly spread across their property could devastate their lives and livelihoods, but Maine is showing it’s possible to keep farms going despite the problems caused by the “forever chemicals.”

"A coalition of public health and environmental groups filed a petition for review Monday, arguing the EPA’s recent move to weaken power plant emission rules endangers people’s health and lives."

"If you've opened your natural gas or electric bill lately and bit back a scream, or watched the numbers tick up and up at the gas pump, you're not alone. For many Americans, energy prices feel uncomfortably high right now."