"Californians relying on small water utilities to bring drinking water into their homes, or who work or go to school in places providing their own water, are far more likely to be exposed to lead, according to a new analysis of Environmental Protection Agency data by The Desert Sun and USA TODAY."

"Fracking for oil and natural gas can contaminate drinking water under 'some circumstances,' the Environmental Protection Agency said in a report released Tuesday, which changes a previous finding that the drilling process does not cause 'widespread, systemic' effects."

"Washington state filed an environmental lawsuit on Thursday against agricultural company Monsanto Co seeking damages and cleanup costs associated with the company's production of PCBs, the state's attorney general said."

"President-elect Donald Trump is planning to pick Oklahoma Attorney General Scott Pruitt to run the EPA, putting one of the agency's most hostile critics and a skeptic of climate change science at its helm, sources close to the transition said Wednesday."

"In a former Montana National Guard armory where more than 20 workers got sick, lead-laced dust bunnies the size of tangerines clogged the ventilation system. ... Hundreds of armories across the United States have been contaminated by dangerous amounts of lead dust, an 18-month investigation by The Oregonian/OregonLive has found."

"U.S. EPA's contentious assertion that hydraulic fracturing hasn't caused 'widespread, systemic' problems with drinking water was added shortly after agency officials met with Obama White House officials to discuss 'messaging,' according to documents obtained by public radio reporters."

"Insider documents reveal a trail of deception as leading turf company, FieldTurf, sold high-end sports fields to taxpayers in towns and schools across N.J. and U.S., knowing they might fall apart."

"For the past 25 years, researcher Stephen Jones has tried to understand the threat that bacteria may pose to oysters in New Hampshire's Great Bay estuary. He often couldn't get funding to study the problem. But that is beginning to change as scientists notice 'something is going on.'"

"The European Commission has developed its own evidence to avoid an overly stringent regulation of these hazardous substances."

"U.S. EPA released a plan yesterday for setting objectives to protect the nation's drinking water. The blueprint lays out how federal, state, tribal and local agencies, as well as the private and nonprofit sectors, can address six initiatives."