"The water supply of more than 2 million Californians has been exposed to harmful levels of nitrates over the past 15 years -- a time marked by lax regulatory efforts to contain the colorless and odorless contaminant, a California Watch investigation has found."
The proposed air toxics standards cover emissions from three types of combustion sources and address emissions of mercury, cadmium, dioxin, furans, formaldehyde, hydrochloric acid, and other pollutants.
A new Web tool summarizes by state the number of smaller dischargers whose actions have been reviewed, the number that had a serious violation of their permit, and the number against whom a state took enforcement action.
Indiana environmentalist Jeff Stant has been pushing to have EPA declare coal ash a hazardous waste. EPA has resisted for some 30 years.
"The Environmental Protection Agency on Tuesday proposed the nation's first federal rules for the disposal of contaminant-laden ash from coal-fired power plants, but delayed a decision for at least three months on whether coal ash should be regulated as a hazardous substance."
Nitro, West Virginia, is still struggling with the toxic legacy of a long-shuttered Monsanto weedkiller plant that has polluted soil and water with dioxin.
US EPA's "National Priorities List" includes about 1,280 of the nation's worst sites. But there are tens of thousands of sites not on the NPL, and finding them is fairly easy.
"Four environmental groups have just filed a major new water pollution lawsuit against Massey Energy."
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