"The EPA announced new drinking water health advisory levels today for the industrial chemicals PFOA and PFOS. The new levels — .07 parts per billion (ppb) for both chemicals — are significantly lower than standards the agency issued in 2009, which were .4 ppb for PFOA and .2 ppb for PFOS."

"House and Senate negotiators reached agreement on Thursday on far-reaching legislation to overhaul the nation’s 40-year-old law governing toxic chemicals, a compromise that would subject thousands of household chemicals to regulation for the first time.

Public health advocates and environmentalists have complained for decades that the 1976 Toxic Substances Control Act is outdated and riddled with gaps that leave Americans exposed to harmful chemicals. Under current law, around 64,000 chemicals are not subject to environmental testing or regulation.

"Researchers in Arizona are fighting fire with fire. They're collecting new data on a wasp that may help slow the spread of citrus greening, a plant disease that has devastated millions of acres of citrus crops, particularly in Florida."

"New report says genetically engineered crops are safe to eat but weed resistance and other unanswered environmental questions should be cause for more regulatory oversight."

"The Dungeness crab fishery could decline West Coastwide, a new study has found, threatening a fishing industry worth nearly a quarter-billion dollars a year."

"A House committee on Wednesday passed a bill to delay the Obama administration’s new ozone pollution rule and change the way the federal government writes future air pollution rules."

"Ontario has passed legislation creating a cap-and-trade system to fight climate change, which the government predicts will add $5 a month to home heating bills and 4.3 cents to the price of a litre of gasoline, or $8 a month on average."

"The NAACP has filed a federal lawsuit against Michigan and its governor on behalf of the residents and businesses in Flint, where high levels of lead in the drinking water has created a health crisis."

"DEQ says all Duke Energy coal ash waste must be dug up, but wants permission to be more lenient if improvements occur."

"State regulators have raised the risk designations for some of Duke Energy’s coal ash dumps, a move that could require 25 impoundments to be dug up by 2024.

Or not.

The Department of Environmental Quality wants the power to lower risk rankings in 18 months if the utility proves that coal ash is not polluting nearby drinking water and repairs dams at its waste sites."

"The Supreme Judicial Court of Massachusetts ruled on Tuesday that the state must impose comprehensive cuts in greenhouse gas emissions to comply with the Global Warming Solutions Act, a law passed by the legislature in 2008."