Pollution

"EPA might try to toughen hazardous air pollutant standards for coal-fired power plants in the course of revisiting one of the Trump administration's most incendiary environmental moves, according to the agency's acting air chief.

"The amount of carbon dioxide in Earth's atmosphere reached 419 parts per million in May, its highest level in more than four million years, the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration announced on Monday."

"Officials from California, New York and other states urged the Environmental Protection Agency on Wednesday to allow California to set its own automobile tailpipe pollution standards, an action that would reverse a Trump administration policy and could help usher in stricter emissions standards for new passenger vehicles nationwide."

"A cargo ship carrying tonnes of chemicals is sinking off Sri Lanka's west coast, the country's government and navy said on Wednesday, in one of Sri Lanka's worst-ever marine disasters."

"A U.S. judge has permanently blocked a Las Vegas-based bottled-water brand Real Water from being marketed while an investigation continues into at least one death and multiple cases of liver illness among people who reported drinking it."

"Environmental groups in Florida are warning that unusually high numbers of manatee deaths in the first five months of the year, blamed in part on resurgent algal blooms contaminating and destroying food sources, could threaten the long-term future of the species."

"Exxon Mobil’s U.S. oil refineries pump out far more lung-damaging soot than similarly-sized facilities operated by rivals, according to regulatory documents and a Reuters analysis of pollution test results."

"A California environmental group threatened to sue Montrose Chemical Corp. and Bayer Corp., alleging they’re liable for the dumping of millions of gallons of the pesticide DDT off the waters of Los Angeles that poisoned wildlife."

"The Environmental Protection Agency is aiming to rewrite Trump-era regulations that curtailed the ability of states and tribes to protest major energy projects that threaten rivers, lakes and streams".

"The Department of Health announced this week that Little Alabama Bayou, about 20 miles west of Baton Rouge, has fish with unsafe levels of mercury, a heavy metal that can stunt brain development and inflict long-term damage on the kidneys and heart. The bayou runs through the Sherburne Wildlife Management Area, a popular fishing destination."