"Water quality downstream from surface coal-mining operations in West Virginia and Kentucky greatly exceeds recommended toxicity limits, according to previously unreleased sampling data from the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency."

"Facing foreclosure, Gail Litz, 61, has sued the town of Goldsboro, Caroline County and the state, seeking millions of dollars in compensation and to halt the seeping sewage that is fouling her lake and forced her to close Lake Bonnie Campsites." The Maryland Department of the Environment ordered the town to build a public sewer system or pay fines of $100 per day if it didn't meet the deadlines. "Fourteen years later, the pollution continues unchecked. No fines have been collected. The lake remains contaminated."

"A former foreman at one of West Virginia's largest underground coal mines admitted Wednesday that he lied about conducting a key safety test, as a federal criminal probe continued into allegations that Patriot Coal officials covered up evidence of explosive methane levels at their Federal No. 2 Mine in Monongalia County."

"Gov. Bob McDonnell signed into law Wednesday offshore drilling legislation intended to realize his goal of making Virginia the East Coast's energy superpower."

"As scientific evidence mounts against bisphenol-A, a chemical used in plastic baby bottles, soup cans and other containers, many states -- including Maryland -- are starting to take action to limit the chemical ahead of any federal regulation."

"A leak of more than 3,500 pounds of toxic ammonia gas from the Dow Chemical Co. facility in Institute [WV] went undetected for nearly two weeks, company officials disclosed Wednesday."

"The Virginia House of Delegates passed a bill that would help protect a single Fortune 500 company from asbestos lawsuits -- a proposal that House Speaker William J. Howell has been quietly maneuvering to have his chamber support for weeks."

"Mine operators are spreading serious amounts of coal combustion waste in W.Va. before the EPA declares it to be a hazardous material."

Both backers and critics of coal are often seeing EPA's crackdown on mountaintop removal mining in Appalachia as inconsistent and tentative. "To each side, it looks like the EPA hasn't made up its mind. Which would make now the time to yell as loudly as possible."

"Facing a $5 million funding cut, the [Va.] state Department of Environmental Quality last summer scrapped the $365,000 PCB monitoring program."