Chemicals

"California lawmakers are urging federal officials and Congress to act after researchers mapped what appeared to be more than 25,000 barrels dumped in an area off the coast of Los Angeles known for DDT contamination."

"For years, environmental advocates and neighborhoods close to Louisiana industrial plants have sought more monitoring of air pollution. But a state Senate committee on Tuesday rejected a bill that would have required 473 plants to install real-time air monitoring systems and pay for it."

"The EPA said Thursday that it’ll expand the scope of its toxics release inventory to include more chemicals and facilities releasing toxic chemicals while providing easier public access to the data."

"A federal appeals court on Thursday ruled that the Environmental Protection Agency must ban a widely used pesticide linked to neurological damage in children from being sprayed on food crops, unless the agency can demonstrate safe uses for the chemical."

"As demand for electric vehicles heats up, there's concern about a shortage of the key minerals needed to make them. The Biden administration has called for boosting domestic production of such minerals, including lithium for the lithium-ion batteries used in electric vehicles. And that has many hoping for big business in a desolate spot of California's Imperial Valley."

"The Biden administration nominated Sylvia Johnson, Jennifer Sass, and Steve Owens to serve on the U.S. Chemical Safety and Hazard Investigation Board."

"Thirteen U.S. oil refineries released the cancer-causing chemical benzene in concentrations that exceeded federal limits last year, according to government data published by the green group Environmental Integrity Project (EIP) on Wednesday."

"When EPA Administrator Michael Regan fired every member of two science advisory panels in March, he was trying to send an unequivocal message: It's a new day for scientific integrity."

"Marine scientists say they have found what they believe to be more than 25,000 barrels that possibly contain DDT dumped off the Southern California coast near Catalina Island, where a massive underwater toxic waste site dating back to World War II has long been suspected."

"Next week, before the nation's highest court, nearly a century's worth of tension between the United States and Guam over the cleanup of a massive waste site on the remote Pacific island will come to a head."