The mayor of Brenham signed Monday the city council’s unanimous resolution opposing the Bureau of Land Management’s (BLM) plans to auction lands beneath and around Lake Somerville for oil and gas development. The resolution cited concerns that loss or contamination of the lake’s water supply would be “catastrophic” for its residents. Lake Somerville is the […]
By Nika Knight The state of Michigan has declared that Flint’s drinking water “meets all federal water quality standards,” ending a program Wednesday that reimbursed residents for most of their water costs in the wake of the lead crisis. Yet Flint residents still can’t drink the water and the announcement was met with outrage. 1,700 […]
By Lauren McCauley Throwing the weight of his office behind the nation’s biggest polluters, President Donald Trump on Tuesday signed an executive order directing his administration to dismantle the Obama-era Clean Water Rule. Surrounded by other foes of environmental regulation, including the newly confirmed U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) head Scott Pruitt, the president declared […]
[Editor’s note: President Trump signed another executive order on Friday aimed at eliminating regulations.] The Washington Post has reported that the Trump administration may announce a number of executive orders in the coming days. The rumored targets—the Clean Power Plan, the Clean Water Rule and the federal coal leasing moratorium—protect our air and water, save […]
Neskantaga First Nation in Ontario has had to boil water since 1995. “We’re over 20 years already where our people haven’t been able to get the water they need to drink from their taps or to bathe themselves without getting any rashes,” Neskantaga Chief Wayne Moonias told CBC News in 2015. Their water issues have […]
Gov. Jerry Brown’s oil regulators failed to meet their own deadline Wednesday for shutting down 1,650 oil industry injection wells that are violating water-protection laws by dumping toxic fluid into protected California aquifers. “Governor Brown’s administration has decided not to protect our water from illegal contamination by the oil industry,” said Hollin Kretzmann of the […]
By Sydney Robinson More than 1,700 residents of Flint, Michigan, are seeking legal compensation in a class-action lawsuit against the U.S. government for the handling of the lead water crisis in their city. The litigation has been a long time coming for a community that has suffered well over two years with poisoned water and […]
Tap water in the U.S. is generally safe to drink. At least that’s what we are told by medical professionals and government agencies. The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA), which regulates public drinking water, aims to “ensure and protect the quality of Americans’ drinking water” under the Safe Drinking Water Act, established in 1974. Reports […]
Nearly 20 percent of the water fountains in Chicago parks tested positive for excess levels of lead in the water and have been shut down by the Chicago Park District. Hundreds of drinking fountains in Chicago parks have been shut off after testing revealed high levels of lead in the water.CBS Chicago Of the 1,891 […]