Pollution

"During an audit last year, federal authorities found an industrial plant had flushed pollutants into Columbia’s sewer system without making sure the contaminants were at legal levels."
 

Phosphorus, mined primarily from phosphate rock, is a key fertilizer ingredient that maintains U.S. farm productivity. But once it runs off into lakes and streams it can be too much of a good thing.

"Federal pollution authorities have quietly stepped in to help Minnesota force a huge sugar beet processor near Renville to end its long history of fouling streams that lead to the state's most troubled river."

"Washington has become the first state to ban pavement sealants that contain coal tar. The state made the move in response to recent studies that show runoff from macadam treated with these products can pollute lakes and streams."

"The Ohio and Mississippi River levels were falling Wednesday at the site where engineers blasted holes in a Missouri levee to relieve pressure. But unleashing torrents of water across 35 miles of farmland in what has already been a terrible flooding season could carry other consequences. One risk, scientists cautioned, is fertilizer runoff from the flooded farm country along the Mississippi."

"The potential for public exposure to dangerous levels of asbestos in the contaminated mining town of Libby [Mont.] remains a concern to federal health officials, according to preliminary results of a risk-assessment study announced Tuesday, more than a decade after cleanup operations began."

"A coalition of conservation groups has made good on its threat to take the owners of Chicago's sewage treatment plants to court over the foul stuff they have been discharging into the Chicago River for more than a century."

"Los Alamos National Laboratory must capture and eliminate toxic runoff from over 400 waste dump sites that discharge pollutants to the Rio Grande, a source of drinking water for Santa Fe, under a settlement agreement reached Thursday with community groups."

"The Obama administration announced Wednesday that it will impose stricter pollution controls on millions of acres of wetlands and tens of thousands of miles of streams."