Agriculture

"Debra Shankland was a kid when the Cuyahoga River in Ohio caught fire in 1969. ... Shankland was one of many speakers at the latest listening session led by the EPA as the agency crafts a new definition for the long controversial language “waters of the United States” contained in the Clean Water Act. The interpretation of that phrase, commonly shorthanded as WOTUS, can have massive implications for the health of small streams, remote wetlands, creeks and other waters."

"A warming climate exposes more and more workers to increasingly hotter conditions every year, yet soon after taking office, Donald Trump indefinitely froze a heat illness prevention rule proposed under the previous administration and gutted the only agency that studies workplace health and safety."

"US regulators are poised to approve a pesticide made with a controversial class of toxic chemicals, stoking concerns of new risks for farms across the country."

"In a victory for global agrochemical maker Bayer, Georgia has become the second state to shield pesticide manufacturers from some lawsuits claiming that they failed to warn customers of potential dangers."

"Enlarging the dam would deliver more Sacramento River water to Central Valley farmers but a tribe could lose sacred sites and endangered salmon could lose habitat in wet years."

"The U.S. Department of Agriculture has agreed to restore climate change-related webpages to its websites after it was sued over the deletions in February. The lawsuit, brought on behalf of the Northeast Organic Farming Association of New York, the Natural Resources Defense Council and the Environmental Working Group, argued that the deletions violated rules around citizens’ access to government information."

"A last-minute add to the Republican tax, energy and national security megabill mandating the sale of public lands threatens to fracture GOP support for the sweeping measure, presenting Speaker Mike Johnson a new hurdle as he races to assuage his party on multiple fronts."

"For the first time, scientists have mapped groundwater variables nationally to understand which aquifers are most vulnerable to contamination from orphan wells." "A new study from the U.S. Geological Survey finds that groundwater in Appalachia, the Gulf Coast and California is susceptible to contamination from orphaned oil and gas wells."