"Communities across the US are struggling to cope with impending federal requirements for eradicating two toxic PFAS chemicals from their drinking water systems, utility leaders said at a water policy conference this week."
"In a quiet stretch of western Massachusetts stands a sycamore so old it was around when the Constitution was signed. It’s awe-inspiring, with branches bigger than the entire trunks of most trees. ... In the eastern United States, that rare sense of awe was once supplied in bulk by the American chestnut."
"Climate change and the energy transition are driving a wave of state laws overriding local governments, with both parties driving their preferred policies."
"The Environmental Protection Agency is reconsidering whether facilities that recycle plastic chemically should be held to the same strict air pollution standards as incinerators. The possible change is alarming environmental advocates who say it would lead to more dangerous pollution spewing into communities, with fewer or no checks at the federal level."
"Risks from cancer and other diseases could be hidden with little accountability if justices favor big firms, critics warn"
"Despite hours of impassioned arguments from Sen. Tina Smith, the U.S. Senate ended a Biden-era moratorium on mining in the Boundary Waters Canoe Area Wilderness watershed."
"CONGAREE NATIONAL PARK, S.C. — Rising possibly 175 feet above the floodplain, propped up by a trunk 15 feet around at its base, America’s tallest loblolly pine dwarfed the veteran state biologist standing beneath it."
"Public health officials in Omaha, Nebraska, say not enough kids who live near the country’s largest residential lead cleanup site are tested for the metal. Faced with similar crises or concerns, 13 states have passed laws requiring all kids to get a blood test for lead early in life."
"After Canadian wildfires brought extremely poor air quality to Detroit in the summers of 2023 and 2025, Michigan is updating how it communicates air quality risks to residents this year."
"The global wildlife trade is driving the spread of disease from animals to people, according to a new study of thousands of wild mammal species and 40 years of international trade records."
