"Governor Christie declined to sign a bill that would have required public notification whenever sewer-outfall pipes dump raw sewage into local rivers and bays, legislation that had received overwhelming support by both parties in the state legislature."
"CHARLESTON, W.Va. -- Federal and state investigators learned Tuesday that an additional chemical that wasn't previously identified was in the tank that leaked Jan. 9 at the Freedom Industries tank farm, just upstream from West Virginia American Water's regional drinking water intake."
Journalists had trouble overcoming EPA and CDC press office obstacles and getting access to agency experts and officials during this month's drinking water contamination crisis in Charleston, WV. SEJ and the Society of Professional Journalists (SPJ) have sent a letter of complaint to heads of both agencies and their press offices. We urge them to adopt specific practices to end press office stonewalling and increase transparency, especially in times of crisis.
[UPDATE: Reply of January 29, 2014, from EPA Assoc. Adm. for Ext. Affairs Tom Reynolds]
[UPDATE: Reply of January 22, 2014, from CDC Public Affairs Director Barbara Reynolds]
[UPDATE: "CDC: Pregnant Women Should Have Been Warned About Water Sooner," Charleston Gazette, January 22, 2014, by Ken Ward Jr.]
"An explosion and fire flattened part of an animal feed plant in Omaha, Nebraska, on Monday, killing at least two people and injuring at least 10 others, authorities said."
"Russian courts sentence Evgeny Vitishko, a critic of the Sochi Olympics construction developments, to three years."
"A federal appeals court today tossed out a U.S. EPA air pollution rule for some Native American territories."
"BEIJING — Filthy emissions from China’s export industries are carried across the Pacific Ocean and contribute to air pollution in the Western United States, according to a paper published Monday by a prominent American science journal."
"WASHINGTON — More crude oil was spilled in U.S. rail incidents last year than was spilled in the nearly four decades since the federal government began collecting data on such spills, an analysis of the data shows."
"West Virginia's governor on Monday proposed legislation to regulate above-ground storage tanks, a move that comes after a spill of coal-processing chemicals shut off drinking water to about 300,000 people."
"ANDREWS, Tex. — Standing at the lip of what might be America’s most valuable hole in the ground, Rodney A. Baltzer cataloged the features that he said would isolate the radioactive waste to be buried here for thousands of years."
