Category: Public health
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The EPA Has Found More Than a Dozen Contaminants in Drinking Water but Hasn’t Set Safety Limits on Them
Credit: Illustration by Micha Huigen, special to ProPublica The inaction on regulating contaminants — including those that likely cause cancer, reproductive or developmental issues — found in the water of millions of Americans illustrates shortcomings in the U.S. response to environmental threats, say experts. As far as state and federal officials are concerned, the drinking…
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EPA Restarts Assessment of Health Risks from Nitrate in Water
The agency will evaluate the hazards from agriculture’s primary water pollutant. Farming regions in northeastern Nebraska and elsewhere have some of the highest concentrations of nitrate in streams and groundwater due to decades of fertilizer use. Photo © J. Carl Ganter/Circle of Blue. The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency, reversing a Trump-era decision, is restarting a…
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EPA Plans Rulemaking on Tire Chemical 6PPD That Pollutes Bodies of Water
Action triggered by petition concerning indirect impact on salmon habitats EPA officials say a chemical used in tire production reacts with ozone pollution and can kill aquatic species when stormwater runoff washes it into waterways. Graphic courtesy of State of Washington Dept. of Ecology November 3, 2023 The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency on Nov. 2 granted…
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San Mateo County schools’ drinking water contaminated with nitrate
Image from October shows a beaker filled with water from the faucet at Pescadero Middle/High School in Pescadero, Calif. KGO-TV PESCADERO, Calif. (KGO) — Drinking water is contaminated with nitrate at two San Mateo County schools. It’s a decades-old problem that resurfaced in a local science classroom. “It’s horrible looking right now,” said Cullen Rose,…
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Why limiting PFAS in drinking water is a challenge in the US
The EPA faces legal and other hurdles as it attempts to regulate PFOA and PFOS An article in the local newspaper caught Andrea Amico’s eye in May 2014. It reported that one of the three drinking-water wells at a sprawling business and industrial park nearby was shut down because of high levels of chemical contamination.…
