Pollution

"The United States and Japan joined 18 other countries yesterday in backing the creation of a new international "framework" to curb ocean plastics after rejecting a stronger Canadian proposal on the same topic last year."

"Documents that the federal Environmental Protection Agency tried to keep confidential show that its staffers criticized how Minnesota regulators drafted a key permit for the planned PolyMet copper-nickel mine, and concluded that the permit would violate federal law because it lacked pollution limits based on the state’s water quality standards."

"The nation’s largest public utility on Thursday agreed to dig up and remove about 12 million cubic yards (9.2 million cubic meters) of coal ash from unlined pits at a Tennessee coal-burning power plant."

"Senators at a Clean Water Act hearing expressed interest in reopening the law to clarify which wetlands and waterways it protects. But that effort would likely be stymied by the fact that participants in the Environment and Public Works Committee hearing, including ranking member Tom Carper (D-Del.), expressed confusion over basic concepts of Clean Water Act jurisdiction."

"After a 10-month wait, preliminary work began Thursday on the delicate task of removing barrels sitting in Wallowa Lake marked as containing defoliants used in Agent Orange."

"Prosecutors dropped all criminal charges Thursday against eight people in the Flint water crisis and pledged to start from scratch the investigation into one of the worst man-made environmental disasters in U.S. history."

"Canada plans to ban some single-use plastics like straws, bags and cutlery by early 2021 to reduce non-recyclable waste and protect the world’s oceans, Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau said on Monday."

"A coalition of environmental groups on Tuesday filed a lawsuit challenging the U.S. Interior Department’s rollbacks of safety measures put in place by the Obama administration in the aftermath of the fatal 2010 BP Deepwater Horizon oil spill."

"An Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) administrator under former President Obama told lawmakers Tuesday the agency under the Trump administration is ignoring its mission."