Justice & Health

Over the past few decades, the United States has imported most of its lithium from Chile and Argentina, but there’s one major domestic source of the mineral—Nevada. Clayton Valley, a remote basin in the nation’s driest state, is home to the Silver Peak mine, where lithium is extracted in gridded ponds that turn neon blue […]

When rain comes down in some parts of Charleston, S.C., sewage comes up. In the neighborhood of West Ashley, storms trigger waste overflows so often into a pond near Nell Postell’s home that she has a wet-weather routine based on forecasts: she buys surgical masks, clears her garden and then listens for the sewage to […]

In Luzerne County, in northeast Pennsylvania, the Nanticoke Creek is dry most of the time because unless there’s a major storm, any water that flows into it disappears into underground voids created by coal mines that operated there for decades until the 1960s. The creek has long been a target for restoration by Earth Conservancy, […]

LOUISVILLE, Ky.—When the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency responded to a “surface water pollution emergency” on farmland 17 miles south of downtown in 1979, federal officials joined state regulators in removing 17,000 barrels of hazardous waste from an illegal dump site. It would become notorious nationally as the “Valley of the Drums.” But the EPA didn’t […]

California emits more sulfuryl fluoride, a potent greenhouse gas and toxic pesticide, than the rest of the lower 48 states combined, a new study concludes.  The study, published Wednesday in the journal Communications Earth & Environment, comes after California—a state that touts its leadership role in addressing climate change—denied a recent request to include the […]

Livestock agriculture is a major source of greenhouse gas emissions, but lawsuits against the industry for its role in the climate crisis are only now starting to land in courtrooms and could become critical tools for reducing greenhouse gas emissions. A new analysis from researchers at Yale Law School, published Monday in the Columbia Journal […]

COFFEE COUNTY, Ala.—Ronald McKinnon thinks six years is long enough.  Residents of the Shiloh community, the historically Black neighborhood where McKinnon grew up, have faced repeated flooding for six years now—the result of an expanded highway state workers elevated above nearby homes, they have said.  McKinnon grew up in Shiloh, attending nearby Elba High School […]

On Monday, Texas health officials confirmed an individual who had “direct exposure to dairy cattle” has contracted bird flu, marking the second reported human case of the H5N1 virus in U.S. history. The person has only exhibited eye inflammation so far, and the CDC says risk to the public remains low. However, this highly pathogenic […]

California chemical engineer Jan Dell knows from her own research when packages lie. She has seen too many containers stamped with “the chasing arrow” crest—a curvy three-arrow stamp meant to indicate an item can be recycled—tossed or refused by reliable recycling centers.  She’s used electronic trackers to challenge a Houston recycling program, document how plastic […]