In the San Luis Valley, the ongoing megadrought and a record-low snowpack are draining groundwater and increasing its concentrations of toxic metals. There are few protections for residents drinking from private wells.

By Emily Payne

Julie Zahringer hears a common refrain at her environmental laboratory in Alamosa, Colorado: A customer has been drinking well water on family land where they’ve lived for years, but recently noticed it has changed. They want to know why.

As a Colorado Aquifer Runs Low, Dangerous Heavy Metals Threaten Rural Communities’ Drinking Water

U.S. Rep. Frank Pallone Jr. says the Trump administration has cut regional staffing serving the state by a third, making progress on Superfund cleanups “nearly impossible.”

By Anna Mattson

New Jersey is home to nearly 9 percent of the nation’s Superfund sites—more than any other state. They range from chemical plants with toxic byproducts leached into the soil, to oil-filled lagoons, open fields rife with septic waste and rivers polluted with toxic chemicals. Many have remained contaminated for decades.

New Jersey Leads the Nation in Superfund Sites as EPA Funding Cuts and Staff Reductions Threaten Cleanups

In “Smog and Sunshine,” UCLA’s Ann Carlson tells of the scientists, lawyers, government officials and community members behind the decades-long effort to clear Southern California skies.

By Steven Rodas

As a child growing up in Southern California, Ann Carlson remembers mountains obscured by haze and yellowish brown air that stung her eyes and made her lungs ache.

Smog, Lies and Pineapples: How LA Cleaned up Its Air and What’s Left to Do