Pollution

Many Environmental Protection Agency scientists surveyed by the Union of Concerned Scientists, a nonprofit group, said they have personally experienced political interference in their work. EPA officials deny any wrongdoing. Here are examples of interference, according to the group: · Air-pollution monitoring : The EPA allowed North Dakota to change the way it measured air quality in 2004. That brought Theodore Roosevelt National Park into compliance with air-quality standards without reducing pollution.

PITTSBURGH — Hydraulic fracturing for natural gas hasn't contaminated drinking water wells in Arkansas, according to a new study, but researchers said the geology there may be more of a natural barrier to pollution than in other areas where shale gas drilling takes place. The most passionate critics and supporters of hydraulic fracturing, or fracking, often describe the process in extremes, suggesting it is either inherently dangerous for the environment or that it poses virtually no...

THE DISTRICT is still days away from a new tax on plastic and paper bags, and the complaining has already started. That's understandable given the fundamental change in habit that people are being asked to make. Nonetheless, the new law is a worthy effort aimed at reducing local litter and cleaning up polluted waterways. Not only should it be vigorously enforced, but we also hope it spurs neighboring Virginia and Maryland to follow suit. On Friday, the Anacostia River Cleanup and Protection Act will take effect -- implementing a 5-cent fee on disposable...

A federal appeals court yesterday struck down a Bush administration rule that prevented states and local governments from imposing stricter monitoring of pollution generated by power plants, factories and oil refineries than required by the federal government. In a 2 to 1 decision, a panel of the U.S. Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia Circuit found that the Environmental Protection Agency rule violated a provision of the Clean Air Act, which requires adequate monitoring of emissions to ensure compliance with...

Environmental groups presented a federal official with more than 19,000 signed letters and postcards Tuesday asking the U.S. government to set stricter rules to prevent pollution in the Chesapeake Bay. The presentation, held outside an Environmental Protection Agency building in Annapolis, came eight days before one of the most crucial deadlines in the Chesapeake's recent history. In May, President Obama issued an executive order calling for federal agencies to act more aggressively to help the bay,...

TUESDAY, May 13 (HealthDay News) -- Exposure to coarse airborne-pollution particles, such as those found in windblown dust or stirred up by agricultural work and mechanical grinding, does not appear to be linked to hospital admissions, a new study finds. Coarse particulate matter, or PM10-2.5 for short, is between 2.5 and 10 micrometers or microns (thousandths of a millimeter) in size -- much smaller than a pinhead. To date, research into health risks posed by coarse particulate matter pollution...

BEIJING — In a rare bow to public pressure, the Beijing local government has begun using a more stringent measure for air quality, and the first publicly announced readings Thursday showed the air was "hazardous" in at least two areas of the polluted capital city. The release of the data followed online protests and complaints that the U.S. Embassy in Beijing was providing a more accurate gauge of Beijing's air than the city government, which typically tries to downplay the pollution as mere "fog.

Development in the Potomac River's watershed means that much rainwater now bypasses natural filtering systems and washes off of roofs, parking lots and streets carrying a variety of harmful pollutants, according to a report released today. In its second annual "State of the Nation's River" report, an environmental group called the Potomac Conservancy gave the river an overall grade of D-plus -- the same as last year's. In this report, the group focused on problems from "impervious surfaces," the...

The day after the November 2010 elections made clear President Obama's greenhouse-gas legislation was doomed, he vowed to keep trying to curb emissions linked to global warming. There's more than one way of "skinning the cat," he told reporters. Since then, Obama has used his executive powers — including his authority under the 1970 Clean Air Act — to press the most sweeping attack on air pollution in U.S. history. He has imposed the first carbon-dioxide limits on new...

NEWARK, Del. — A University of Delaware-led study has found that decades-old federal standards overestimate current poultry industry contributions to water pollution. The News Journal of Wilmington reports (http://delonline.us/100IFow ) that researchers found that nitrogen levels in poultry house manure are 55 percent lower than the Environmental Protection Agency's standards. Efforts to eliminate waterway dead zones and algal blooms nationwide have focused on pollution from manure.

CHATTANOOGA, Tenn. — The Tennessee Valley Authority is offering retirement incentives to employees of some of its coal-fired power plants. According to the Chattanooga Times Free Press (http://bit.ly/15INGK5 ), TVA wants to cut some of the 2,400 jobs in the fossil plant division. The government-owned utility is talking with workers at its 11 coal-fired plants about retirement options. TVA spokesman Mike Bradley said the number of staff cuts and when they will occur is still...

Early on in Beijing's winter of pollution-wracked discontent, one of China's biggest power companies, Huadian, turned off the coal scrubbers at its Datong plants and let emissions of sulfur dioxide, a leading cause of acid rain and respiratory illness, soar to more than four times government standards. Huadian saved money by turning off the scrubbers, which suck up power. What's more, Huadian falsified paperwork and sold its electricity at a premium rate that the government offers to power plants with low emissions.

Smallmouth bass that draw hundreds of millions of dollars to the Chesapeake Bay region for sport fishing are sick, and many look too awful to ever mount as a trophy. A report released Thursday by the Chesapeake Bay Foundation says the fish, particularly those in the lower Susquehanna River, have been struck by a perfect storm of pollution, parasites, disease and endocrine disruptors that are changing the sex of males. The catch rates of adult bass fell 80 percent between 2001 and 2005 in some areas of...

It is the dawn of the super crab. Crabs are bulking up on carbon pollution that pours out of power plants, factories and vehicles and settles in the oceans, turning the tough crustaceans into even more fearsome predators. That presents a major problem for the Chesapeake Bay, where crabs eat oysters. In a life-isn't-fair twist, the same carbon that crabs absorb to grow bigger stymies the development of oysters. "Higher levels of carbon in the ocean are causing oysters to grow slower,...

SHANGHAI — The "Chinese dream" is to own an apartment, a car — and, increasingly, a license plate. As the world's biggest car market battles some of the world's worst traffic congestion and air pollution, license plate rationing has driven prices up to the point where a Shanghai plate costs nearly three times as much as a cheap Chinese car. Scalpers throng the entrance of the art deco auction house near Shanghai's famous Bund, where owners...

Two recent insightful articles by David A. Fahrenthold build on the tiresome history of broken promises pertaining to the rampant pollution in area watersheds. The Feb. 1 Metro article " Cleanup idea for bay brings deluge of protests " said the debate between environmentalists and developers "could be an early test of the Chesapeake's actual political capital. " The debate is over in Virginia, and the Chesapeake Bay came in dead-last. The "new [stormwater] rules approved by former governor Timothy M. Kaine," to which...

CHESTER, Va., June 23 -- Virginia officials announced Tuesday a groundbreaking initiative to monitor pollution spewed from power plants and other facilities built before passage of the 1970 Clean Air Act. Gov. Timothy M. Kaine said the pilot program is believed to be the first of its kind in the country. He said the state Department of Environmental Quality will start an in-depth analysis of air quality near three aged plants and plans to survey 15 in all over the next five years.

I woke up in my dark bedroom the other day, head pounding and mouth dry. Before I even got out of bed, I knew that Beijing was having one of its hazardous-air-quality days. There was a tickle in my throat. My eyes stung and watered the minute I set foot outside. On a similar day a few days before, I'd walked only 10 minutes from my apartment to my friend's place. By the time I got there, my coat, scarf and hair smelled the way they would have smelled after a night in a smoky bar followed by a couple of hours standing behind a car's exhaust...

BEIJING — Bad air is good news for many Chinese entrepreneurs. From gigantic domes that keep out pollution to face masks with fancy fiber filters, purifiers and even canned air, Chinese businesses are trying to find a way to market that most elusive commodity: clean air. An unprecedented wave of pollution throughout China (dubbed the "airpocalypse" or "airmageddon" by headline writers) has spawned an almost entirely new industry. The biggest-ticket item is a huge dome that resembles an overgrown wedding tent.