"DEPUE, Ill. -- This tiny village tucked into the Illinois River Valley is known for its lake, a tranquil body of tree-lined water that has drawn thousands of spectators to a national boat race for nearly 30 years. But most visitors heading to Lake DePue must pass another village landmark before reaching the shore — a pile of contaminated slag weighing at least 570,000 tons that looms over the main road into town, left behind by a zinc smelter that employed many locals for decades."

"YADKINVILLE -- Google, of all companies, last year got into the business of hog poop."

"The Department of Energy has reduced the 586 square miles of Hanford requiring environmental cleanup to 161 square miles. In three more years, the land requiring cleanup could be little more than the 75 square miles at Hanford's center as DOE works to complete cleanup outlined in its 2015 Vision, an ambitious plan for work to be completed by the end of 2015."

"New citations against Chemical Waste Management prompt Kettleman City activists, who believe the dump has sickened children, to protest its proposal to grow."

"A team led by researchers at the University of Maryland School of Public Health has found that the 'superbug' methicillin-resistant Staphylococcus aureus (MRSA) is prevalent at several U.S. wastewater treatment plants (WWTPs)."

"Disposed World War II explosives and munitions in the Gulf of Mexico pose a threat to offshore oil drilling, according to Texas oceanographers."

"MONTPELIER, Vt. -- Nearly 20 years after the Vermont and Texas Legislatures first agreed to have Vermont ship low-level radioactive waste to the Lone Star State, the first shipments of waste have been made."

The political and public relations artifact that is the "nuclear renaissance" may be slowed by the industry's and the government's inability to deal with nuclear waste.

"Injection wells used to dispose of the nation's most toxic waste are showing increasing signs of stress as regulatory oversight falls short and scientific assumptions prove flawed."