toxic waste

18 Stories

Off California Coast, a Vast Chemical Graveyard

Survey shows dumping site is bigger than the city of San Francisco, shocks scientists

(Newser) - Scientists who set out to map an underwater dumping ground for industrial waste off the California coast last month say they were stunned by what they found: endless waste barrels spread across a site larger than the city of San Francisco, some 3,000 feet under the sea. After a...

Huge Toxic Algae Bloom Bigger Than Feared in May

It's 40 miles wide and 650 feet deep

(Newser) - A massive toxic algae bloom first detected in May is denser, deeper, and more widespread than scientists feared as recently as a few weeks ago, report surveyors aboard a National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration research vessel. As many as 40 miles wide and 650 feet deep, it stretches at least...

Toxic Water Actually 'So Routine' in Ohio

Pollution, invasive species, and climate change have all been blamed

(Newser) - Tap water has been declared safe to drink and bathe in again in Toledo, Ohio, but scientists warn that toxic algae blooms could be here to stay. Fertilizer from farms and cattle feedlots are partly to blame for the thick layer of algae choking Lake Erie, the most developed of...

EPA to Workers: Stop Pooping in the Hall

Agency hires consultant after phantom pooper strikes

(Newser) - The Environmental Protection Agency has a pretty basic tip for EPA employees who want to protect the environment they work in: Stop pooping in the hallway. The agency's Denver branch found it necessary to tell workers to cease "inappropriate bathroom behavior," citing incidents including toilets clogged with...

New Sandy Fear: 45 Superfund Sites Were in Storm's Path

Storm surge could have stirred up a lot of toxic waste

(Newser) - Add toxic waste to the litany of Sandy cleanup concerns. Some 45 Superfund sites in New York and New Jersey were within a half-mile of areas vulnerable to storm surge, the Wall Street Journal reports. And the EPA says that at least a few such sites—seen as America's...

Roman Tomb Found Beneath Toxic Dump

Illegal dumping 'robbing our patrimony,' says environmentalist

(Newser) - It's enough to make Caesar roll over in his grave. An ancient Roman mausoleum has been discovered beneath an illegal toxic waste dump outside Naples. The huge, vividly decorated 2nd-century tomb was found beneath some 60 tons of refuse dumped on ruins at Pizzuoli, site of the ancient Roman...

Texas to US: Send Us Your Radioactive Waste

Commission OKs site, to be fourth such dump in country

(Newser) - In a move sure to delight the nuclear-energy industry and depress environmentalists, a Texas commission yesterday set the ball rolling on legislation that would make the state the final destination for 36 states' low-level radioactive-waste. The commission voted 5-2 to approve rules that govern the process of accepting such material....

Toxic Sludge Reaches Danube
 Toxic Sludge Reaches Danube 
Oct 7, 2010 2:59 PM CDT

Toxic Sludge Reaches Danube

Hungarian spill moves into Europe's 2nd largest river

(Newser) - A spill of toxic waste has reached a branch of Europe's second largest river, the Danube. The sludge from a burst containment reservoir in Hungary has already devastated the first river it came into contact with, the Marcal, reports Voice of America . EU officials say that all fish and wildlife...

The Gulf: Our National Sinkhole
 The Gulf: 
 Our National Sinkhole 
It's Not Just BP...
Jul 30, 2010 7:19 AM CDT

The Gulf: Our National Sinkhole

Environmental woes predate BP, oil spill

(Newser) - Question: What, beside millions of barrels of oil , has been dumped into the Gulf of Mexico? Answer: Just about everything. The crude oozing across the Gulf is just the latest in a string of environmental problems plaguing the region, finds the New York Times . In addition to oil, there are...

Cigarette Butts Are Toxic Waste: Study
 Cigarette Butts Are 
 Toxic Waste: Study 
fired up
Nov 9, 2009 5:30 PM CST

Cigarette Butts Are Toxic Waste: Study

Cigarette-soaked water kills fish

(Newser) - The chemicals in cigarette butts are lethal to fish, and the finding is bolstering researchers who want coffin nails classified as toxic waste. San Diego State University researchers submerged filters from smoked cigarettes in tanks of water for 24 hours, then added fish. Within 5 days, half the fish died....

UK Gags Guardian, but Twitter Airs Suppressed Story

Social media site explodes with toxic waste scandal

(Newser) - The Guardian has been slapped with an unprecedented gag order forbidding it from reporting on a question in the British parliament, as well as who asked the question and why it's being gagged. The paper says constitutional rights are being infringed upon and it's already suing—but meanwhile, the suppressed...

Oil Giant Tries to Settle Biggest- Ever UK Lawsuit

Trafigura offers deal to Africans sickened by toxic sludge

(Newser) - A British multinational has offered a multimillion-dollar payout to settle a case involving toxic pollution in the Ivory Coast, the Independent reports. A contractor working for oil trading firm Trafigura dumped hundreds of tons of toxic sludge around Abidjan in 2006, sickening tens of thousands. Some were permanently disfigured, and...

UK Slammed for Dumping Toxic Waste in Developing World

(Newser) - Britain is accused of flouting international law by dumping toxic industrial and medical waste in Brazil and Ghana, the Times of London reports. Brazilian authorities were outraged to find over 1,000 tons of hazardous waste in 90 shipping containers labeled as holding recyclable plastic. "It is disgraceful that...

Tennessee Tests Massive Sludge Spill for Toxins

Huge spill of coal ash has locals worried

(Newser) - EPA officials are working through Christmas running tests on a river of sludge that inundated 400 acres in Tennessee, the Tennessean reports. The gloop, coal ash waste that spilled from a power plant retention pond early Monday, is suspected of containing high levels of arsenic, lead, mercury, and other toxins....

River of Sludge Wipes Out Tenn. Homes

Hundreds of acres look like a moonscape after coal plant's pond collapses

(Newser) - A 500 million gallon spill of potentially toxic goop escaped from a Tennessee power plant to destroy the landscape, wreck 15 homes and contaminate local rivers, reports CNN. The sludgy residue of coal burning busted through the walls of a containing pond. Up to 400 acres have been coated in...

Artists Are Making Junk—Literally
 Artists Are Making
 Junk—Literally 
OPINION
May 30, 2008 8:25 PM CDT

Artists Are Making Junk—Literally

Despite greenie claims, they flush chemicals, abandon art pieces

(Newser) - Beware the scruffy artists at the corner cafe—they may be serial polluters and not even know it, Laurie Fendrich writes in the Chronicle of Higher Education. Many painters, tree-huggers by claim, will flush chemicals down the drain, and ignore the carbon footprint of their synthetic pigments. They just "...

Deep, Dark Secrets Indeed
Deep, Dark Secrets Indeed
Dec 8, 2007 7:31 AM CST

Deep, Dark Secrets Indeed

New books shed some light on immense, unexplored ocean depths

(Newser) - Though the first deep-sea expedition took place in 1931, humans still know little about what goes on miles below sea level. What we do know is startlingly strange, Tim Flannery writes in a look at two new volumes in the New York Review of Books—and a rising tide of...

Scientists Work on Life From Scratch

Creation of an artificial organism could be 3 to 10 years away

(Newser) - A synthetic life form constructed in a lab from basic components could make its debut in the next 3 to 10 years, scientists say. Researchers are hard at work on creating a cell, which hopefully would be able to reproduce on its own. "It's going to be a big...

18 Stories