Contamination, pollution, and the regulatory fights over air, water, and land.
The settlement is priced on drinking water. The exposure is in the soil, the gardens, the eggs, the honey, and the fish. Follow-on to our September 11 piece.
New details since our September 14 deep dive. Read that one first: “The fire they put out is the contamination.”
NPR reports measurable increases in cities that lost the State Department’s independent PM2.5 data. It’s the cleanest natural experiment we have on what monitoring itself accomplishes, and it pairs with the domestic decline I wrote about last week.
The 2024 greenhouse gas standards for fossil-fuel plants are gone. The agency put a dollar figure on the savings and didn’t put one on the health cost. Here’s the mechanism that connects a carbon rule to the air in Suffolk County.
A federal judge is weighing whether the glyphosate settlement is fair. Awards from $10,000 to $165,000. Bayer keeps selling. The exposure question stays open, which means the documentation question does too.
The AP found that one in five service lines nationwide is of unknown material, and 3,500 utilities admit they don’t know. The replacement clock starts in 2027. Here’s what “unknown” means for the person at the tap.
A supplemental notice asks how to define “relatively permanent” and “continuous surface connection.” Comments close October 9. The practical question is whether your next shoreline job needs a federal permit or a state one.
An Inside Climate News investigation traces the lobbying that stopped the bill. The exposure pathway it leaves open is one most consultants aren’t tracking yet.
EPA has signaled it will propose scaling back the 2024 rule covering ethylene oxide, chloroprene, and fenceline air monitoring at about 220 chemical plants. Here’s what the rule requires, what the monitors measure, and why the data matters more than the limit.
The Fifth Circuit, en banc, dismissed claims from Jackson, Mississippi residents who alleged officials knowingly let lead into the water. The ruling is narrower than the headline and bigger than it sounds.
Wisconsin researchers used 115 bald eagle nestlings as PFAS detectors and found different chemical “fingerprints” by region. This is source apportionment. It’s the most useful idea in PFAS work that nobody explains, so here it is.
The Guardian built an interactive on the state’s plastic waste stream. It’s background, not a compliance item. Read it anyway, because on Long Island, disposal capacity is the whole ballgame.
From Class SD to Class I. Comments open September 16, hearings in November, and a $3.4 billion sewage tunnel behind it.
Proposed 6 NYCRR Parts 360 and 363 would be the first rule in the country to make landfills treat leachate for PFAS before it goes to a sewage plant. The comment window closed September 9. The fight over what “treat” means is just starting.
Third delay in a year. Forty-plus sites have PFAS in nearby drinking water. Here’s what “interim measures” means for the people living next door, and why it’s a Long Island story.
An advocacy group wants governors to ban drift-prone pesticides. Take the advocacy for what it is. The exposure-science point underneath it is solid.
Exposure science, outbreaks, and the research linking the environment to human health.
→SectionWorkplace and product safety — recalls, occupational hazards, and the failures behind preventable harm.
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