September 13, 2021

Serbia: Several thousand people protested in Serbia on Saturday demanding a ban on planned lithium mining in the Balkan country as well as a resolution to scores of other environmental issues that made the region one of the most polluted in Europe.

September 6, 2021

Louisiana Shell refinery left spewing chemicals after Hurricane Ida Power outages from the storm have left air quality tracking systems out of commission, making public health concern hard to gauge

August 30, 2021

 Cans, plastic bags and bottles plague the water and beaches of Tripoli’s Mediterranean coast. Because of pollution, the Libyan environment ministry last month ordered the closure of a number of beaches along the18-mile Greater Tripoli coastline.Daily discharges of untreated sewage from the Libyan capital’s two million people make this the most polluted section of the North African country's coastline.

August 23, 2021

Fight back: The Smiths' struggle to live free from chronic sewage pollution is common across their section of Cahokia Heights, a small, predominantly Black suburb located across the Mississippi River from St. Louis and formed earlier this year from the merger of three communities strained by population loss and aging infrastructure.  The environmental challenges have spiraled into what the group Centreville Citizens for Change says is a crisis, prompting the federal government to step in twice this month and more than two dozen residents, including the Smiths, to file a federal lawsuit in July alleging that "decades of government failure to ensure basic sewage and stormwater services ... have created an environmental injustice for this Black community.

August 16, 2021

Off the coast of five Caribbean countries, reports have identified 18 different polymers of plastic -- including, synthetic fibres, paint flakes and acrylics -- in waters across the Caribbean, with the highest concentrations (5.09 particles per m³) located off the San Blas islands in Panama.  Detailed ocean modelling and an assessment of regional policies indicated the abundance of microplastics in the area likely arose from a combination of distant sources carried by ocean currents and run-off from mainland Panama, which has some of the highest estimated levels (around 44%) of mismanaged waste in the region.  By contrast, the waters off Antigua, Bonaire and Colombia had lower quantities of terrestrial and marine plastics

August 9, 2021

Denver was the most polluted on the planet as of early Saturday afternoon. Rounding out the top five list was Salt Lake City, Utah.   A large area of wildfire smoke from the Dixie Fire in California was to blame for the poor air quality across the west

August 2, 2021

In Illinois, USA:   It's been over a week since the EPA and Winnebago County Health Department advised Rockton residents in the Blackhawk neighborhood to not drink their private well water, but neither group would tell WREX the severity of the tests which caused them to make the recommendation

July 26, 2021

The Corfo Lagoon in Patagonia, southern Argentina, has turned pink after waste from fishing companies was dumped in its waters, sparking alarm among local residents and authorities

July 12, 2021

In the UK, Southern Water has been fined a record £90m after pleading guilty to dumping sewage thousands of times in the space of five years.  The company admitted to causing 6,971 unlawful sewage discharges between 2010 and 2015, which lasted a total of 61,704 hours - the equivalent to one pipe leaking continuously for more than seven years.

July 5, 2021

Giz: A senior Exxon lobbyist was caught on tape admitting that the company has been running a behind-the-scenes campaign to combat regulation on plastics and PFAS, a video released Thursday shows. The tape is the second installment of an undercover investigation

June 28, 2021

An Idaho environmental group is suing Idaho Power, claiming it’s illegally polluting the Snake River through Brownlee Dam in violation of the federal Clean Water Act.

June 21, 2021

On Sri Lanka: The main concern has been about 300 tons of bunker oil used as fuel for the ship. But officials have been saying it could have burned off in the fire.  On Thursday, Lahandapura said the salvage experts have informed her that “there could not be any oil left considering the nature of the fire, heat, duration of the fire and position of the fuel tanks.”  Both Lahandapura and X-Press Feeders said so far there was no oil spill.  The government has asked the United Nations and some other countries for help in assessing the damage to the marine environment and coastal areas

but from the UN, no answer to Press questions...

June 14, 2021

 Maryland is suing Pennsylvania for not doing enough to reduce pollution in the Chesapeake Bay...

June 7, 2021

Update:  Sri Lankan authorities are bracing themselves for a new wave of pollution, following the sinking of the container ship X-Press Pearl off the coast of Colombo.  Up to three billion plastic pellets have already been released into the sea from the vessel.  The ship's cargo also included 25 tons of nitric acid and other chemicals, while its fuel tanks contained hundreds of tons of oil

May 31, 2021

Sri Lanka's top environment body said on Saturday the country was facing its worst marine ecological disaster triggered after a Singapore-flagged cargo ship caught fire near the Colombo beach, fueling severe environmental concerns.

May 24, 2021

San Diego — A new county office will focus on areas of San Diego most affected by pollution, health disparities and the effects of climate change, the County Board of Supervisors decided Wednesday. In a unanimous vote, the board agreed to create an office of climate and environmental justice within its land use and environmental group

May 17, 2021

The shipwrecked Golden Ray, which capsized off the Georgia coast near Brunswick in 2019, caught fire Friday afternoon, sending billowing black smoke up over St. Simons Sound.

May 10, 2021

In 2020, China's CO2 emissions rose by 1.5% while those of most other countries fell. Although, in 2020, the world retreated from coal, these retirements were eclipsed by China's new coal plants.  Even before China built those new plants, it was already the world's biggest emitter of fossil fuel carbon dioxide (CO2): In 2019, China was responsible for almost 30% of CO2 emissions -- roughly twice the amount emitted by the US, then the second largest emitter. China, the planet's primary coal consumer, already has the largest concentration of coal plants globally; in 2020, it produced 3.84 billion tons of coal, its highest output since 2015. In addition, China, in 2020, imported 304 million tons of coal, up 4 million tons from 2019.

May 3, 2021

This week the US State Department announced  "This year, the Department certified 35 nations and one economy and granted determinations for twelve fisheries as having adequate measures in place to protect sea turtles while harvesting wild-caught shrimp." And what about name and shame?

April 26, 2021

Air pollution data in China may have been manipulated by local officials, according to a new study conducted by Harvard and Boston University researchers.  The analysis, published on Wednesday, found statistically significant differences between data from monitoring stations run by local Chinese officials in five cities - Beijing, Shenyang, Shanghai, Guangzhou and Chengdu

April 19, 2021

River story: "Mercury was ubiquitous in both household and industrial uses in the 1800s and 1900s, said Joel Hoffman, a research biologist and co-author of the study who is chief of the Ecosystems Services Branch of the EPA's Duluth laboratory. Those sources likely included paper mills, lumber mills, steel mills, shipbuilding sites, manufacturing facilities and other sources that once dominated the river and Twin Ports harbor shoreline.

April 12, 2021

Two dead whales have washed up on the same stretch of Bangladesh coastline in two days, officials said Saturday, raising suggestions that they were killed by sea pollution.  Officials said the second, much longer whale washed up on Himchhari Beach, outside the resort city of Cox's Bazar, at around 8:30 am

April 5, 2021

Chron: Los Angeles is the most severely polluted of all US cities.  Vehicles generate the bulk of greenhouse gases, roughly 70 million tons per year.  Greater Houston, a metro area of 7.1 million, presents a stark contrast.  Houston proves that a city need not be circled by a mountain barrier to form dense air pollution.  Look in any direction from a building in Houston and behold level terrain as far as the pollution haze allows the eye to see.  Extraordinarily flat, Houston is nonetheless pollution-plagued.  Just as Houston and Los Angeles differ markedly in topography, they differ also in pollution “source mix”.  Houston’s vehicle fleet accounts for less than 30% of air emissions, appreciably smaller than LA’s.  But greenhouse gases are not negligible – about 24 million tons per year.  Industrial behemoths including ExxonMobil, Dow Chemical, and Lyondell as well as other refining and petrochemical businesses contribute importantly to Houston’s economy.  They also contribute to pollution, accounting for most of the balance of air emissions along with smaller factory operations and electricity generation.

March 29, 2021

GAINESVILLE, Florida - The Florida Department of Environmental Protection has issued a notice of pollution near the Alachua County jail...

March 22, 2021

What will pro-China UNSG Guterres say about this, from the FT? "Despite Xi’s pledge last year to reach net-zero carbon emissions by 2060, China’s five-year economic blueprint released this month disappointed those who had hoped for strict curbs on polluting coal power plants.  Even before the dust storm, Beijing was mired in a relapse of poor air quality at levels similar to 2016, caused by soaring production of steel, cement and aluminum.." March 15, 2021

  Researchers at the University of Virginia and Duke University law schools have created a database to track the criminal prosecution of corporations. According to that registry, federal prosecutors have made only 17 such deals out of more than 700 environmental and wildlife cases since the late 1990s. The Times found two more non-prosecution agreements through a Freedom of Information Act request.  Eight of those deals, or roughly 40 percent, came out of the Central District of California, a rate far out of proportion to its share of the country's environmental caseload, according to a summary of environmental prosecution data maintained by Syracuse University's TRAC project

March 8, 2021

The U.S. Court of Appeals for the 9th Circuit on Thursday reversed the conviction of James Philip Lucero for engineering a scheme to dispose of dirt and debris on lands adjoining the Mowry Slough in Newark, near the Don Edwards San Francisco Bay National Wildlife Refuge.  Lucero was a "self-described 'dirt-broker' who provided contractors and trucking companies with open space to dump fill material, or dirt, taken from construction sites for a fee," according to the court.  He was indicted in 2016 for "knowingly discharging a pollutant" into "navigable waters" in violation of the federal Clean Water Act.     The heart of the dispute was what the trial judge should have told the jury about the meaning of the word "knowingly."

March 1, 2021

From the UK: THAMES Water has been given a fine worth more than £2 million following a pollution incident in Oxfordshire.  The water company was fined £2.3 million for a raw sewage pollution incident in 2016, which saw 1,200 fish die.

February 22, 2021

Minnesota pollution: On Feb. 19, the Minnesota Pollution Control Agency issued a Code Orange Air Quality Alert to be in effect from 6 p.m. today through noon Sunday, Feb. 21 for much of east central and southeast Minnesota, including Wright County.  According to the MPCA, "Air quality is expected to worsen beginning Friday evening, with the Air Quality Index (AQI) forecasted to reach Orange or Unhealthy for Sensitive Groups category."