Great Plains (IA KS ND NE MO SD)

"Iowa’s three largest public universities have determined that their coal ash disposal method does not pose a risk to the public health, a decision some say was made without sufficient evidence or regard for experiences with contamination in neighboring states."

"Missouri Attorney General Chris Koster is investigating whether a state agency violated the law by not releasing data showing E. coli bacteria above safe levels in the Lake of the Ozarks."

"For generations, people in Leadwood have lived near huge piles of dangerous, lead-contaminated mining waste. Now the EPA has decided the answer to the problem is to pile on more lead-tainted earth. To many folks, that makes no sense at all."

Kansas Governor Mark Parkinson revived a Sunflower Electric coal-fired power plant when he replaced Katherine Sibelius. Now that deal may be unraveling.

The century of mining that built Treece, Kansas, has left it a toxic ghost town. EPA says the residential areas have been cleaned up, but Sen. Pat Roberts is poised to file a bill to buy out residents if EPA does not spend stimulus money to do so.

"Iowa's largest utility companies are ramping up their opposition to proposed state rules that would require them to monitor the mercury being emitted from their power plants, public records obtained by The Des Moines Register show."

"The air across Iowa is so polluted that the state is perilously close to violating new federal limits aimed at protecting human health."

The nation's largest residential lead pollution site reached a key milestone today with the signing of an EPA decision on how to clean up thousands of residential yards in eastern Omaha contaminated over decades by emissions from the former ASARCO lead refinery.