"Wal-Mart Stores Inc. has agreed to pay $27.6 million to settle allegations that it improperly handled and dumped hazardous waste at stores across California in a case that led to changes in the retailer's practices nationwide, prosecutors said Monday."
"For 100 years, Mexico City has flushed its wastewater north to irrigate the farmland of Hidalgo State. This foul cascade, which the farmers call 'the black waters,' flows through a latticework of canals and then trickles over the fields. So when word got out that the government was finally going to build a giant wastewater treatment plant, one might have expected the farmers around here to be excited. Instead, they were suspicious."
Dispersants used on the Gulf oil spill may have toxic effects and harm ecosystems -- raising questions about whether the cure is worse than the disease. Companies refuse to disclose some of the ingredients, saying they are trade secrets.
"FRAMINGHAM, Mass. -- Simply because of what it does, General Chemical Corp.'s work is 'dirty business,' one company official acknowledges."
"Pollution before the first Earth Day was not only visible, it was in your face: Cleveland’s Cuyahoga River caught fire. ... The challenges to the planet today are largely invisible -- and therefore tougher to tackle."
"Nutrients in manure and synthetic fertilizers deplete oxygen in streams while fecal bacteria are posing health risks."
"Alarmed by latest research, the Obama administration is conducting a broad review of toxic weed killer atrazine that could lead to tighter restrictions."
"After a year of working with environmental groups, government regulators and the chemical industry, a leading advocate for chemical regulation has devised a plan to remake the nation's chemical laws -- a 34-year-old set of regulations that all players agree is outmoded and ineffective."
A Tennessee-based chemical company, cited and fined by New Mexico authorities for environmental violations there, won $75,000 in punitive damages in its SLAPP suit against a community activist for what it claimed were defamatory public presentations.
"Plumes of toxic, smog-causing chemicals from Barnett Shale natural-gas operations are so common that inspectors find them nearly every time they look, a Dallas Morning News examination of government records shows. What's more, the inspectors have rarely looked."
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