Investigations into concerns about water pollution in the Pavillion area have been closely watched by Garfield County residents, because the two regions share one significant characteristic — they are home to very active natural gas exploration industries.

In the last two years and 10 months, Kettleman City, California residents say, at least 11 babies have been born with serious birth defects.

The federal government is warning residents in a small Wyoming town with extensive natural gas development not to drink their water, and to use fans and ventilation when showering or washing clothes in order to avoid the risk of an explosion.

Enbridge Inc. is facing an investigation by U.S. officials into complaints that it coerced residents near its Michigan pipeline spill into giving up their rights to sue, in return for paying for items such as air purifiers and hotel rooms for those who were evacuated from their homes.

U.S. government officials urged residents of a Wyoming farming community near natural gas drilling sites not to use private well water for drinking or cooking because of chemical contamination.

The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency investigating drinking water contamination in Pavillion, Wyoming, found benzene and methane in wells and in groundwater, agency officials said.

It might seem right and relevant to side with small animals and against single-use plastic bags, and it may not be easy aligning yourself with the chemical industry. But take a breath. Ask a few questions: How many plastic bags end up as litter? What might the toll be on wildlife? No one knows for certain.

While the world was focused on the oil spill in the Gulf of Mexico, a BP refinery in Texas City, Texas released huge amounts of toxic chemicals into the air that went unnoticed by residents until many saw their children come down with respiratory problems.

Workers are raising the height of exhaust stacks that emit fumes to ventilate Hanford tanks that hold radioactive and hazardous chemical wastes.

The school, which serves over 800 children, is scheduled to open its doors Thursday, complete with new and improved sump pumps, a vent pipe and a groundwater remediation system.

Mushrooming Marcellus Shale gas well development in Pennsylvania is releasing hazardous chemicals into the air and water, but more study is needed to assess the human health risks they pose.

Tonawanda Coke is in hot water with the Environmental Protection Agency again.

The City Council’s Tuesday forum on proposed hydrofracture natural gas drilling in the state, which potentially threatens most of the city’s drinking water, attracted about 200 people.

The Koch brothers are longtime libertarians who believe in drastically lower personal and corporate taxes, minimal social services for the needy, and much less oversight of industry – especially environmental regulation. And they are putting their enormous wealth behind their beliefs.

The cleanup of history's worst peacetime oil spill is generating thousands of tons of oil-soaked debris that is ending up in local landfills, some of which were already dealing with environmental concerns.

The cleanup effort from the Gulf of Mexico oil spill has left behind more than 45,000 tons of garbage. That includes used boom, stained clothing from cleanup workers, tar balls and other trash. And now come questions of where to put that trash.

State environmental regulators, under heavy prodding from the Legislature, said Monday that they're installing new equipment to check for possible air pollution from gas drilling in the Barnett Shale.

Eight new air monitors are planned for one of the nation's largest natural gas fields, where drilling has raised questions about emissions effects, state lawmakers said Monday.

It may be too optimistic to hope that British Petroleum's reckless destruction of the Gulf of Mexico is a wake-up call, that our sedentary, wasteful, plastic, oil-powered American lifestyles are unsustainable.

An undersea oil plume from the Gulf of Mexico spill stretched for at least 21 miles from the leak site, research out Thursday shows. Reported in the journal Science, the study helps answer questions about the fate of the crude, about 4.9 million barrels' worth, in the Gulf.

Federal officials and environmental regulators in Texas are engaged in a public and increasingly bitter politicized fracas that has evolved from a dispute about the state’s air pollution permitting rules into a pitched battle over states’ rights.

Two energy companies hit this year with record penalties for contaminating springs in Garfield County have been cited by the state in connection with new allegations of water pollution.

The death knell for Marine Corps Air Station El Toro, California, once the premier Marine Corps air station, was sounded in 1985 when trichloroethylene (TCE) was found in three wells during a routine well inspection by the Orange County Water District (OCWD). Two wells were off the base, the other on the base.

A development company purposefully sidestepped laws when it buried oil-contaminated concrete slabs decades ago before constructing 285 single-family homes in Carson's Carousel tract, researchers recently revealed.

BP continued to flare off thousands of pounds of the potent carcinogen benzene, along with other toxic chemicals, while local leaders, residents and workers were never alerted. Texas lawmakers must put a high priority on a statute closing this pollution loophole.

The expected drilling of Dallas' first natural gas well could help bring cleaner energy to the nation – and desperately needed income to the city, which owns the site. Or it could mean more air and water pollution, noise, traffic and safety risks.

State environmental regulators and local environmental activists are looking for signs of life returning to Trail Creek, where thousands of fish were killed by the chemical spill that followed a July 28 fire at J&J Chemical Co., near the headwaters of the stream.

Imagine dipping a drinking cup repeatedly into Loch Ness and coming up with enough body parts to infer the existence of a monster. What scientists have recently discovered is a continuous, unbroken plume of hydrocarbons about 3,300 feet down, stretching southwest from the well for some 22 miles.

Cities throughout North Texas are considering changing their drilling ordinances as residents continue to express concerns that drilling-related activity may affect public health and the environment.

Like those exposed to the Russian Chernobyl disaster, or the many thousands now sick and dying after exposure to the 9-11 Twin Towers toxic cloud, the people of the Gulf coast may have joined the ranks of the walking dead.

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