Environmental Health

"State lawmakers this week agreed to stretch out a regulatory review of Dominion Virginia Power’s plan to permanently store coal ash at four sites, including in Chesapeake. ... But assessments planned by Dominion to help state regulators decide next year if the cap-in-place proposals are still sound may not include most of the ash stored at the Chesapeake site, the company has indicated."

"As private landlords increasingly take over the government's role of housing low-income families, dozens of children have been poisoned by brain-damaging lead while living in homes and apartments declared safe by the Chicago Housing Authority. Taxpayers often still paid the rent."

"Environmentalists asked a federal court today to compel U.S. EPA to take action on a common farm pesticide linked to children's health risks."

"Environmental Protection Agency officials are proposing to eliminate two programs focused on limiting children’s exposure to lead-based paint, which is known to cause damage to developing brains and nervous systems."

"One in 10 pregnant women in the continental United States with a confirmed Zika infection had a baby with brain damage or other serious birth defects, according to the most comprehensive report to date on American pregnancies during the Zika crisis."

"AUGUSTA, Maine — The water that flows out of your faucet may taste good, smell good and look good — but there’s a chance it could make you sick. That was the message from some scientists who shared their ongoing research last week at the Maine Sustainability & Water Conference, held each year by the Senator George J. Mitchell Center for Sustainability Solutions."

"In a 64-page agency budget document revealed by the Post Friday, a particularly deep cut is aimed at the agency’s 47-member Science Advisory Board, an august panel of outside advisers to the EPA created by Congress in 1978. The board, which is mostly comprised of academic scientists, reviews EPA research to ensure that environmental regulations have a sound foundation."

"New research released Monday documents the impact that pollution from a coal-fired plant in Pennsylvania had on four wealthy New Jersey counties as far as 30 miles downwind. Women in those counties had a greater risk of having babies of low or very low birthweight — less than 5½ pounds — than did women in similarly affluent areas."

"Dozens of families remained at a lead-contaminated public housing complex in northwest Indiana despite a Friday target date to move them out so the city could tear down the buildings."

"Scott Pruitt’s rejection of an organophosphates ban may endanger the children of those who harvest produce."