Tagged: Pollution

Oregon Democratic Congressman Peter DeFazio tried to add an amendment requiring a study of the impacts of transporting coal by rail to the coal bill which passed the U.S. House of Representatives Friday. The Republican majority blocked the amendment.

When the Clean Water Act was created 40 years ago rivers were on fire and raw sewage was spilling into some waterways. The Act has accomplished a lot over the years - reining in the largest industrial polluters and improving water quality, overall.

But there are some emerging contaminants the Clean Water Act was never designed to control, and they are affecting the environment in new and different ways. Ashley Ahearn has the latest installment in our ongoing EarthFix series “Clean Water: The Next Act."

A new report released Thursday brings together the best data on the environmental health of Puget Sound. Ashley Ahearn reports.

University of Oregon researchers say they have found a way to reduce carbon dioxide emissions from coal-burning plants by more than 90 percent. Their formula uses refrigeration to capture and control the dangerous chemicals pumped out of smoke stacks.

Farming is the single biggest reason rivers are failing to meet standards set by the Clean Water Act. EarthFix Reporter Aaron Kunz visited Idaho’s Pahsimeroi Valley for our series with Investigate West on this environmental law’s 40th anniversary. It turns out the problem isn’t so much what cattle ranchers and alfalfa growers are putting into the water – it’s what they’re taking out.

A Seattle-based seafood company has been fined 430,000 dollars for violations of the Clean Air Act. Ashley Ahearn reports for EarthFix.

Icicle Seafoods harvests and sells salmon, crab Pollock and other fish from the waters of the Northwest and Alaska. And one of the key components of catching fish and bringing them to market – is refrigerant.