drinking water

Microplastics 101: Everything You Need to Know

Microplastics 101: Everything You Need to Know

Quick Key Facts We use a lot of plastic.  Since the 1950s, more than 8.3 billion tons of plastic has been produced by humans. All in all, only 9% of these plastics have actually been recycled, and the rest has either been incinerated or landed up in landfills — and, in many cases, in the […]

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    EPA Proposes First Legal Limits for PFAS in Drinking Water

    EPA Proposes First Legal Limits for PFAS in Drinking Water

    For the first time, the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) has proposed standards for limiting toxic forever chemicals in drinking water. The draft regulation, unveiled Tuesday, would target six types of per- and polyfluoroalkyl substances (PFAS) that are known to be found in drinking water, setting legal limits for their presence.  “EPA’s proposal to establish […]

    EPA Proposes ‘Strongest Ever’ Standards for Keeping Coal Plant Pollution Out of U.S. Waterways

    EPA Proposes ‘Strongest Ever’ Standards for Keeping Coal Plant Pollution Out of U.S. Waterways

    When wastewater from coal-fired plants is released into wider waterways, it can have serious consequences. Environmental toxins including mercury, arsenic, bromide and chloride can pollute drinking water and aquatic habitats, causing cancer and other ailments in humans and making it harder for wildlife to reproduce. That’s why the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) moved on […]

    NREL’s Desalination Device Makes Waves

    NREL’s Desalination Device Makes Waves

    In 2019, the U.S. Department of Energy initiated the Waves to Water Prize. The contest’s goal was to encourage the development of small desalination systems which could help coastal communities in times of climate disaster and recovery and also to help provide clean drinking water to areas where water is scarce. In April of 2022, […]

    U.S. Lawsuit Seeks to Force Two Major Companies to Significantly Reduce Emissions From ‘Cancer Alley’ Plant

    U.S. Lawsuit Seeks to Force Two Major Companies to Significantly Reduce Emissions From ‘Cancer Alley’ Plant

    The U.S. filed a complaint last week against two companies behind a highly polluting petrochemical plant in Louisiana’s “Cancer Alley.”  The Pontchartrain Works facility makes neoprene, a synthetic rubber used for everything from laptop covers to wetsuits. But to do this, it releases chloroprene, a likely carcinogen that is the main reason that the majority […]

    PFAS ‘Forever Chemicals’ Disrupt Biological Processes in Developing Adolescents, First-of-Its-Kind Study Discovers

    PFAS ‘Forever Chemicals’ Disrupt Biological Processes in Developing Adolescents, First-of-Its-Kind Study Discovers

    Exposure to a whole soup of toxic forever chemicals can disrupt biological processes in children and young adults in a way that puts them at risk from diseases like cancer, diabetes and cardiovascular ailments. That’s the “surprising” finding of a first-of-its-kind study from researchers at the University of Southern California’s Keck School of Medicine, published […]

    Hundreds of Thousands More U.S. Service Members Exposed to Toxic Forever Chemicals Than DOD Acknowledges, Report Finds

    Hundreds of Thousands More U.S. Service Members Exposed to Toxic Forever Chemicals Than DOD Acknowledges, Report Finds

    The Department of Defense (DOD) has underestimated how many U.S. service members were exposed to potentially unsafe levels of forever chemicals in the drinking water served on military installations, a new report from the Environmental Working Group (EWG) has found. While the DOD put the number of exposed service members at 175,000 a year at […]