"A Pennsylvania plastics manufacturer will pay $2.6 million for allegedly violating the federal Clean Water Act and will ensure that no more of its plastic pellets leak into waterways, under a proposed settlement with two environmental groups."

"Phthalates, chemicals found in plastics, are linked to an array of problems, especially in pregnancy" 

"Democratic members of the Nuclear Regulatory Commission told lawmakers Wednesday that it’s a possibility they could be fired by President Donald Trump at any moment for their regulatory decisions, while questioning recent White House executive orders to accelerate reactor design approvals."

"As oily rain fell on Roseland, where 90% of kids live in poverty, the Trump administration is considering gutting chemical-disaster safeguards."

"Hakim Dermish moved to the small South Texas town of Catarina in 2002 in search of a rural lifestyle on a budget. The property where he lived with his wife didn’t have electricity or sewer lines at first, but that didn’t bother him."

"The Federal Emergency Management Agency’s past recovery efforts have been impeded by staffing shortages, and officials are facing an ongoing hurricane season with even fewer employees, according to a Government Accountability Office report released on Tuesday."

"A tropical wave located a few hundred miles southwest of the Cabo Verde Islands on Tuesday morning was headed west at about 15 mph." "And in the Eastern Pacific, Tropical Storm Lorena is a heavy rain threat for Mexico, while Hurricane Kiko may pass close to Hawaii Sep. 10-11."

"Unions representing employees of the National Weather Service and U.S. Patent and Trademark Office sued President Trump on Tuesday over an executive order that sought to end employee rights to collectively bargain with the government."

"A Chinese-owned mining company has been accused of covering up the extent of a disastrous toxic spill in Zambia that polluted a major river that millions rely on with cyanide and arsenic."

"Paul Offit, a pediatrician who has sparred with Health and Human Services Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. over childhood vaccination, has been blocked from participating in a vaccine advisory committee for the Food and Drug Administration."