Environmental Pollution
Legislature declines to add 'environmental justice' members to Southern California air quality board
The state Legislature has rejected a controversial measure that would have shifted the political balance of Southern California’s air-quality board by adding three state-appointed “environmental justice” members to represent low-income communities suffering from pollution.
The legislation to expand the South Coast Air Quality Management District board from 13 to 16 members fell 11 votes short of passage in the Assembly late Wednesday, with Republicans and members of a business-aligned bloc of Democrats in opposition.
The measure by State Senate leader Kevin de León (D-Los Angeles)...
Related "Environmental Pollution" Articles
Legislature declines to add 'environmental justice' members to Southern California air quality board
The state Legislature has rejected a controversial measure that would have shifted the political balance of Southern California’s air-quality board by adding three state-appointed “environmental justice” members to represent low-income communities...
SoCal hit with worst smog in years as hot, stagnant weather brings surge in hospital visits
Southern California is experiencing its worst smog in years this summer as heat and stagnant weather increase the number of bad air days and drive up ozone pollution to levels not seen since 2009.
Where pollution is worst, in the Inland...
Oil refiners agree to pay $425 million to reduce air pollution in the West
Concluding a long legal climb to cleaner air, the federal government Monday announced a record $425-million settlement with two oil refiners that is expected to reduce pollution emissions in the West by almost 43,000 tons annually.
The Justice Department...
Microbrewery's edible six-pack rings create eco-friendly alternative to plastic
A brewery has come up with an idea to save sea life and reduce the amount of plastic waste floating in our oceans.
Saltwater Brewery, along with New York City-based ad agency We Believers, developed edible six-pack rings made of the wheat and barley...
Stacking the AQMD board
In the month since business-friendly Republicans became the majority on the board overseeing the South Coast Air Quality Management District, the agency has fired its longtime general manager and reconfirmed a controversial rule that would let oil...
Published in Los Angeles Times on March 11, 2016 — Print headline: "Stacking the AQMD board - A state senator's plan to add three enivronmentally friendly members could cause future problems."
Is AQMD easing up on smog?
Less than a month after the California Coastal Commission booted its executive director, raising fears that agency would allow more development on the coast, leaders of another key regulatory body are contemplating a personnel change that's raising...
Published in Los Angeles Times on March 03, 2016 — Print headline: "Is AQMD easing up on smog?"
EPA wants to declare abandoned Nevada copper mine a Superfund site
Fifteen years after U.S. regulators started assessing damage and health risks at an abandoned Nevada copper mine, the Environmental Protection Agency is moving to designate the contaminated land a Superfund site, a step the state could still oppose.
...
Beijing's new favorite gadget reads pollution levels
For Beijing residents obsessed with air pollution, the stocking stuffer of the season is a smog-detecting gadget called the Laser Egg.
The device is the size of a large orange and can be used at home, in the car or anywhere air pollution is a concern —...
Published in Los Angeles Times on December 14, 2015 — Print headline: "A particulately popular buy - Stylish indoor air-quality gauge sells out in China's smog-filled capital - On the Ground in Beijing"
California's appearance at the climate change talks belies an L.A. oil and gas health threat
Gov. Jerry Brown and a delegation of California officials are in attendance at the U.N. climate change conference in Paris. They are there, in part, to tout the state's efforts to cut carbon pollution and simultaneously grow the economy. Yet as much as...
Published in Los Angeles Times on December 07, 2015 — Print headline: "The oil well next door - As officials tout state climate efforts in Paris, many in L.A. suffer."
In India, Mumbai's mountains of imported coal pose health hazard
When Shyam Goel, 21, won admission to Mumbai's Marine Engineering & Research Institute, he was overjoyed.
The facilities could not be better. The school-affiliated hostel where he would live was neat. Yet two years later, he regrets leaving his...
Published in Los Angeles Times on November 13, 2015 — Print headline: "Black mountains shower city with health hazards - The imported coal poses a threat to residents and the environment - On the ground in Mumbai, India"
After 'military parade blue' skies, pollution returns to Beijing
It was as if somebody had flipped a switch.In the two-week run-up to a military parade in Beijing on Thursday — a massive spectacle to mark the 70th anniversary of Japan's defeat in World War II — the Chinese capital’s notoriously polluted sky was an...
How to pay for cleaning up the Exide mess
The now-closed Exide battery recycling plant in Vernon has apparently spread toxic lead dust through a much larger area than had previously been believed, perhaps contaminating as many as 10,000 homes. That revelation by state officials this month means...
The anguish of Tianjin -- homes lost, loved ones missing
At about 11 p.m. Wednesday, Zhang Deyong stood by his apartment's 22nd-story window and watched two massive fireballs ripple into the sky and then fade into an ominous mushroom cloud of smoke and debris. He felt shock waves course through him, knocking...
Colorado's Animas River reopens to recreation after mine wastewater spill
Nine days after 3 million gallons of mine waste spilled into the Animas River, Colorado officials, with the support of the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency, reopened the waterway in La Plata County to recreation and signed off on some farmers using...
EPA chief says polluted Animas River 'seems to be restoring itself'
Friction continued Wednesday between state and federal officials over whether it's safe to reopen the Animas River in southern Colorado to recreation one week after 3 million gallons of spilled mine waste turned the waters a sickish mustard color.
...
States downstream from contaminated river upset that EPA didn't alert them
As the Environmental Protection Agency continued to monitor 3 million gallons of mine waste released into Colorado’s Animas River, residents in two states downstream decried the federal agency Tuesday, saying it failed to alert them to mustard-colored...
Yellow sludge in Colorado river continues spread, reaches New Mexico
Federal officials scrambled Saturday to contain a spreading environmental disaster that began after a million gallons of contaminated water spilled from an old gold mine, flooding the Animas River and threatening crucial waterways throughout the...
Obama to impose deeper cuts in greenhouse gas emissions
President Obama will impose even steeper cuts on greenhouse gas emissions from U.S. power plants than previously expected, White House officials said early Sunday, in what the president called the most significant step the country has ever taken to...
Drilling for oil in the Chukchi Sea isn't worth the risk
The Obama administration is being at least somewhat more cautious this time around in allowing Royal Dutch Shell to drill in the Arctic waters of the Chukchi Sea. The company must keep its drills from reaching the oil reserves until it has the equipment...
Refugio State Beach to reopen two months after oil spill
Refugio State Beach in Santa Barbara County will reopen to the public next week, two months after a pipeline ruptured and fouled the coast with thousands of gallons of thick black crude.
Response officials toured the beach Thursday and cleared it to...