chromium
Credit: California National Guard/Senior Airman Crystal Housman/Flickr
California wildfires created toxic chromium, research finds
As climate change intensifies wildfires, scientists are trying to figure out just how dangerous their smoke can be for human health.
Elevated levels of metals found in creek near Virginia coal ash pit
The effect of coal ash on the environment has been studied and debated for more than seven years now in Virginia. Utilities have spent those years looking for long-term disposal.
Waterkeeper Alliance Inc./Flickr
EPA proposes new rules for toxic pollutants discharged from coal-fired power plants
The EPA has proposed new and stricter limits on toxic contaminants that utilities can discharge from their coal-fired power plants and coal ash landfills — but it’s still unclear how the rules would affect Duke Energy’s facilities in North Carolina.
Sosialistisk Ungdom (SU)/Flickr
The Nigerian woman cleaning up a land soaked in oil
Eucharia Nwaichi takes on saboteurs and companies to detoxify one of the most polluted areas on Earth.
The Monongahela river in Pittsburgh. Photo Credit: Kristina Marusic
Chemicals linked to birth defects are being dumped in Pittsburgh’s rivers: Report
Chemicals linked to cancer and developmental harm are also released in large quantities into the city’s three rivers.
PITTSBURGH—More than 50 years after the passage of the national Clean Water Act, industrial polluters still regularly dump toxic chemicals linked to birth defects and cancer into local waterways, according to a new report.
Among major watershed regions nationwide, the Ohio River basin received the largest volume of toxic chemical discharges by weight in 2020, according to the report, published today by the PennEnvironment Research & Policy Center. Other heavily polluted watersheds included the Mid-Atlantic watershed, which encompasses parts of Pennsylvania, New Jersey, Maryland Delaware and New York; and the South Atlantic-Gulf, which encompasses Florida and parts of surrounding states.
The report looked at data from the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency’s (EPA’s) Toxic Release Inventory, which documents self-reported emissions of toxic chemicals from industrial sources across the country. It found that western Pennsylvania’s waterways see particularly large releases of chemicals like compounds of nickel and chromium, which are linked to reproductive harm, including reduced sperm count, birth defects, miscarriages and premature births.
The lower Monongahela watershed, which encompasses much of southwestern Pennsylvania (and falls within the Ohio River basin), ranks 4th nationally for releases of chemicals that cause reproductive harm into waterways. Around 7,364 pounds of these chemicals were dumped into the watershed’s rivers and streams in 2020, according to the report.
“Pennsylvania’s waterways should be clean — for swimming, fishing, providing drinking water and supporting wildlife,” Ashleigh Deemer, deputy director with the PennEnvironment Research & Policy Center, said in a statement. “But all too often, polluters use our rivers as open sewers with no repercussions.”
Under the Clean Water Act, pollution released into waterways is regulated and monitored in various ways. Most of the pollutants reported under the Toxic Release Inventory are released into waterways legally, but some environmental advocates argue that pollution allowances under the law are too high, given the health harms of these chemicals and improved availability of better pollution control technology in recent years.
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Chemical recycling: ‘Green’ plastics solution makes more pollution: Report
A recently published investigation finds U.S. chemical recycling facilities are making fuel and chemicals, but not new plastics, while generating air pollution and toxic waste. That ‘green tech’ could soon go global.
Joe Biden can make the Tennessee Valley Authority great again
The president has the power to reform the wayward Tennessee Valley Authority. It’s a bigger deal than you think.
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