Reports from a metal galvanizing plant to the State of Connecticut revealed it was discharging stormwater with excessively high concentrations of heavy metals into two local streams, and that its stormwater runoff, loaded with zinc, lead, and copper, was highly toxic to aquatic life. After a wastewater engineering expert retained by NELC concluded that Connecticut […]
Air quality in the Monongahela Valley took a severe hit when ArcelorMittal’s decades-old Monessen Coke Plant, a coal processing facility, restarted operations in 2014. While ArcelorMittal, the world’s largest steel company, was taking in over $80 billion in annual revenue, the Monessen plant was raining black soot, acidic gasses, and foul odors on surrounding towns. In […]
Valley Creek, which flows through Valley Forge National Historical Park in Tredyffrin Township, PA, is designated as an “Exceptional Value” stream by the Pennsylvania Department of Environmental Protection (DEP) and a “Class A wild trout stream” by the Pennsylvania Fish and Boat Commission – the highest water quality classifications the state of Pennsylvania can bestow. […]
A century ago, Maine’s Androscoggin and Kennebec Rivers historically featured annual Atlantic salmon runs of 10,000 or more. By 2010, however, the salmon were in steep decline: only ten adult salmon returned to the Androscoggin, and just five made their way up the Kennebec. Hydroelectric dams are a primary driver of this precipitous drop. The […]
In 2009, air quality in Harris County, TX, was among the worst in the nation – particularly for ground-level ozone, commonly known as smog, which can cause a host of serious respiratory problems. A major contributor was the ongoing release of volatile organic compounds (VOCs), such as ethylene, propylene, and 1,3-butadiene, from industrial facilities in the […]
A small group of Newport, RI residents, self-dubbed the “Sewer Rats,” spent over a decade monitoring the city’s illegal sewage discharges and urging local officials to protect Rhode Island’s beaches from raw sewage contamination. Because Newport had not fully separated its sewage drains from stormwater drains, it suffered “combined sewer overflows,” in which untreated sewage […]
Middletown, RI’s sewage overflows and stormwater discharges, in conjunction with stormwater contamination from the adjacent city of Newport, repeatedly forced closures of popular public beaches on Easton’s Bay. During closures, residents were warned not to swim in the bay due to health hazards caused by high concentrations of fecal coliform and enterococcus bacteria. In 2008, […]
From 2003 to 2008, Shell Oil Company’s Deer Park, TX, oil refinery and chemical plant complex emitted over five million pounds of unauthorized air pollution into neighborhoods that already suffered from some of the worst air quality in the country. On behalf of Environment Texas and Sierra Club, NELC sued Shell and two of its […]
Selenium causes skeletal deformities in fish and can harm people and birds that consume affected fish. Iron, aluminum, and manganese block fish gills, smother fish eggs, and make aquatic life impossible at high enough concentrations. Boron prevents normal growth in waterfowl. For years, the massive coal-fired Conemaugh Generating Station — owned by a consortium of […]
Residents of Zilwaukee, MI, were alarmed when the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers announced plans to dump dioxin-contaminated “dredge spoils” near peoples’ homes, especially once they learned the Corps did not conduct legally-required environmental and public health reviews. Dredge spoils are the soil and sediment removed from the bed or bottom of lakes, rivers, or […]