Southwest (AZ NM OK TX)

A July 19 fire at Citgo's Corpus Christi refinery released deadly hydrogen fluoride, maimed one worker, and threatened a poor, largely minority community at its fenceline. Now larger questions are being asked -- about how authorities responded to it and whether it could have been prevented.

"Sierra Club and Environment Texas filed an air pollution lawsuit today in federal district court against Chevron Phillips Chemical Company LP. The groups claim that Chevron Phillips has repeatedly violated the Clean Air Act at its Cedar Bayou chemical plant in Baytown, Texas."

"As the hot days in Texas get even hotter, it may just be too much for some birds and fish. From the American goldfinch to the gray snapper, some species have been moving north for years, searching for cooler ground. And their quest may someday lead them to migrate out of the state -- forever -- especially if climate change continues to make Texas warmer, as predicted."

After years of complaints, federal agents raided the CES Environmental Services waste-processing facility in southeast Houston.

Arizona's groundwater addiction hasn't been controlled by legal and regulatory measures so far, and may soon threaten the state's economic well-being.

Homes are "contaminated with potentially dangerous levels of uranium from the days of the cold war, when hundreds of uranium mines dotted the vast tribal land known as the Navajo Nation."