Environmental Health

"Congress is providing a little more budgetary heft to EPA's inspector general, which has been fighting with the agency's leadership over access to staff and information."

"The EPA would get $9.06 billion in the current fiscal year ending next September under a spending bill that Congress will vote on this week.

The agency would receive $208 million more in fiscal 2020 than the current $8.8 billion budget. That’s nearly $3 billion more than President Donald Trump’s budget request, but less than the $9.53 billion offered in the House bill that passed the chamber in June. It’s similar to the levels in the Senate-passed bill."

"The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency's Office of Inspector General found that state and federal environmental regulators didn't start monitoring air quality soon enough during the monster storm, which brought a spike in hazardous emissions from industrial facilities."

"Massachusetts state regulators have issued new standards for toxic compounds in drinking water."

"The private corporations that control almost all family housing on American military bases have every incentive to skimp on maintenance, critics say." The result is a common collection of environmental health problems for families.

"People living near Medline Industries in north suburban Waukegan had higher levels of the cancer-causing chemical ethylene oxide in their bloodstream than others who live farther away, according to test results from a federally funded study."

"One of the companies responsible for polluting an 80-mile (129-kilometer) stretch of river and floodplains in southwestern Michigan with toxic chemicals will pay at least $245.2 million to advance a cleanup effort that began more than 20 years ago, federal officials said Wednesday."

"Los Angeles beaches are plagued by stormwater pollution that can make people sick and damage ecosystems, and local governments are largely failing to address the hazards, according to a new report."

"Executives at one of the world’s largest utilities companies knew that families in Flint, Michigan, might be at risk of being poisoned by lead in their tap water months before the city publicly admitted the problem, according to internal company emails."

"New York will restrict the use of the toxic pesticide chlorpyrifos, but will rely on regulations rather than legislation to accomplish the goal."