Publication Items

A bid to drop the legal requirement that drinking water utilities mail annual "Consumer Confidence Reports" reports on any contaminants in water delivered to customers fell short in the Senate June 21, 2012. An amendment, by Sen. Pat Toomey (R-PA), would have allowed utilities to deliver the CCRs to their customers online, rather than via US Postal Service.

Public Employees for Environmental Responsibility is charging the National Park Service with duplicity for multiple reasons regarding demotion of the North Country, Ice Age, and New England Trails, which collectively span 6,020 miles.

The Food and Drug Administration secretly captured e-mails of FDA employees suspected of whistleblowing for agency laxity in protecting the public — but ended up also reading correspondence with reporters, lawyers, and Congress.

If your local utility burns coal, there is likely an environmental story about coal ash to be reported near you. A FOIA request by the Environmental Integrity Project and Earthjustice has produced the identities of another 451 coal ash dumps (than previously listed by EPA), raising the total to at least 1161.