Cancer stories "are numbingly familiar to people who live in the vicinity of Tonawanda Coke Corp. The coke foundry recently was found by the state Department of Environmental Conservation to be emitting benzene, a carcinogen, up to 75 times higher than recommended guidelines. Those levels were up to 2ù times more than what the company reported to regulators."

"After months of deliberations, state environmental regulators on Wednesday released long-awaited rules governing natural gas production in upstate New York, including provisions to oversee drilling operations near New York City’s water supplies."

"In the woods on the northern edge of Scofieldtown Park are remnants of its days as a landfill. Containers lay strewn among the trees -- milk and 7UP bottles that haven't been used since the 1950s. More sinister are rusty paint cans and empty, decaying 55-gallon chemical drums."

"Four years ago, environmental groups hoped Jon Corzine would put the environment high on his list of priorities. today, many of the same groups say Corzine, now seeking a second term as governor, has failed to live up to his promises...."

"Sunoco's use of deadly hydrofluoric acid at its Philadelphia refinery has come under scrutiny after a March accident that sent 13 contract workers to the hospital."

"It took a court order, a bomb squad, and seven months of work by U.S. EPA specialists, but the Abrachem Chemical facility in Clifton, New Jersey now is decontaminated."

NY state Senator Thomas Moran (R) played a critical role in passage of a $5-billion green jobs and energy bill for the state.

"Window and masonry caulking in hundreds of older schools in New England probably contain very high levels of now-banned toxins that can gradually be released into the air, posing a potential health risk to students and staff, environmental specialists say."

"The Ford Motor Co. has settled a lawsuit filed by residents of a northern New Jersey town over toxic waste dumped there nearly 40 years ago."

"A major problem facing municipalities around Albany County: sewer systems that are often overrun by heavy rain and governments that don't have the millions of dollars needed to upgrade often antiquated systems."