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One of the companies accused of polluting the drinking water in the Rialto area has sued the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency saying the agency is withholding evidence that supports the company's case. Charlotte-based Goodrich Corp. says in a lawsuit filed in U.S. District Court in Washington, D.C., that EPA has modelling showing the company is not responsible for the contamination. The EPA is in the process of declaring a 160-acre portion of Rialto a Superfund site because various chemicals, including perchlorate, are flowing through the city and toward Colton and Riverside.

Environmentalists and Navajo groups who have been fighting a proposed coal-fired plant on tribal land in northwestern New Mexico have appealed an air permit granted for the plant. The petition filed Thursday alleges the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency failed to complete required analyses of the project, and instead was stampeded into granting the permit because developers of the Desert Rock power plant filed a lawsuit contending the EPA was taking too long.

BRIDGETON - The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency formally approved a plan Thursday to build a multilayered cover over 40 acres of the West Lake Landfill containing radioactive waste. The plan also calls for a system of groundwater-monitoring wells to be installed at the 200-acre landfill, a Superfund site long slated for federal cleanup. Area residents and environmental activists had urged the EPA to remove waste from the landfill because of concerns over possible flooding and groundwater contamination. But on Thursday, EPA officials touted the approved plan as the best option.

ALBUQUERQUE, N.M. -- A uranium mining company contends a U.S Environmental Protection Agency ruling is stalling its plans to begin operations in northwest New Mexico. The EPA ruled last year that a 160-acre parcel near Church Rock is part of a dependent Indian community, therefore requiring that Hydro Resources Inc. obtain an underground injection control permit with the EPA, not the state of New Mexico.

A 160-acre site in the northern area of the city known for introducing a perchlorate plume into the local ground water supply has been added to the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency's Superfund National Priorities List. When the listing was announced Wednesday, officials declared it as a landmark victory for Rialto residents. "This is a very victorious day for the city of Rialto, after spending $28 million to try to get these guys to do the right thing," Councilman Ed Scott said. The Superfund designation represents a commitment by the EPA to clean the site while making it eligible for government funding, said Wayne Praskins, Superfund project manager. The EPA has been developing an initial cleanup proposal that should be ready at the beginning of the year, Praskins said Friday. It will cost between $10 million and $15 million to construct the facilities needed to conduct a cleanup at the site, and $1 million per year to operate them, Praskins said.

The 10th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals in Denver has upheld an Environmental Protection Agency decision that a proposed uranium mine in western New Mexico would be on American Indian land. A three-judge panel on Friday denied a petition from the New Mexico-based uranium producer, Hydro Resources Inc., challenging a 2007 EPA decision that an area where the company hoped to develop uranium mines is in "dependent Indian Country." The ruling means Hydro Resources must get a groundwater injection permit from the EPA, rather than use a permit already issued by the state of New Mexico.

"New research shows areas formerly mined for uranium near the Grand Canyon have slightly elevated levels of uranium in the water, but that the majority of wells, springs and streams would be fit to drink under EPA standards. The findings are important because they will be at the heart of data used by the Interior DEPArtment as it debates whether to allow or prohibit new uranium mines on the Arizona Strip amid renewed federal interest in nuclear power. Researchers took 1,014 water samples in the region, including downstream of former uranium mines, and found that water exceeded a contaminant level for one or more elements 7 percent of the time. Uranium was one of the contaminants. Fifteen springs and five wells of those sampled contained uranium levels higher than what the EPA considers safe for drinking water, and they were located next to or downstream from known ore deposits, researchers wrote in a 353-page report."

"The Environmental Protection Agency has a new weapon in the fight against radioactive contamination at a Los Angeles-area lab: Mules. The EPA will use four mules to carry high-tech scanning equipment to detect radiation on steep and rocky terrain at the Santa Susana Field Laboratory. The EPA is conducting a survey of soil and water contamination at the lab near Simi Valley, where rocket engines were tested for years and a partial meltdown of a nuclear reactor took place in 1959. About 500 acres of the lab will be scanned for gamma radiation."

After receiving overwhelming opposition to a cleanup plan for the Northeast Churchrock Mine, the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency is going back to the local community to try to work through concerns. The Navajo Nation wants complete removal of an estimated 900,000 cubic yards of radium-contaminated soils. U.S. EPA and former mine operator United Nuclear Corp., a subsidiary of General Electric, have opted for total removal of the most highly radioactive waste to an approved repository, possibly in Idaho, while low-level waste would be moved to the former UNC Mill, a Superfund site that eventually will be turned over to the U.S. DEPArtment of Energy's Legacy Management for lifetime monitoring.

After receiving overwhelming opposition to a cleanup plan for the Northeast Churchrock Mine, the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency is going back to the local community to try to work through concerns. The Navajo Nation wants complete removal of an estimated 900,000 cubic yards of radium-contaminated soils. U.S. EPA and former mine operator United Nuclear Corp., a subsidiary of General Electric, have opted for total removal of the most highly radioactive waste to an approved repository, possibly in Idaho, while low-level waste would be moved to the former UNC Mill, a Superfund site that eventually will be turned over to the U.S. DEPArtment of Energy's Legacy Management for lifetime monitoring.

he U.S. Environmental Protection Agency wants the help of former workers at the Santa Susana Field Laboratory to identify contamination from nuclear and radiological projects at the site. The EPA is interested in interviewing former workers for three companies-Atomics International, Rocketdyne and Rockwell-who may know about spills, dumping or other releases of radiological material, the agency said in a news release this week. The lab was established in 1946 and covers nearly 2,900 acres in eastern Ventura County, just west of the San Fernando Valley section of Los Angeles.

he U.S. Environmental Protection Agency wants the help of former workers at the Santa Susana Field Laboratory to identify contamination from nuclear and radiological projects at the site. The EPA is interested in interviewing former workers for three companies-Atomics International, Rocketdyne and Rockwell-who may know about spills, dumping or other releases of radiological material, the agency said in a news release this week. The lab was established in 1946 and covers nearly 2,900 acres in eastern Ventura County, just west of the San Fernando Valley section of Los Angeles.

Plan to Radically Hike Post-Accident Radiation in Food & Water Sparks Hot Dissent Washington, DC - A plan awaiting approval by the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency that would dramatically increase permissible radioactive releases in drinking water, food and soil after "radiological incidents" is drawing vigorous objections from agency experts, according to agency documents released today by Public Employees for Environmental Responsibility (PEER). At issue is the acceptable level of public health risk following a radiation release, whether an accidental spill or a "dirty bomb" attack. The radiation arm of EPA, called the Office of Radiation and Indoor Air (ORIA), has prEPAred an update of the 1992 "Protective Action Guides" (PAG) governing radiation protection decisions for both short-term and long-term cleanup standards. Other divisions within EPA contend the ORIA plan geometrically raises allowable exposure to the public. For example, as Charles Openchowski of EPA's Office of General Counsel wrote in a January 23, 2009 e-mail to ORIA: "[T]his guidance would allow cleanup levels that exceed MCLs [Maximum Contamination Limits under the Safe Drinking Water Act] by a factor of 100, 1000, and in two instances 7 million and there is nothing to prevent those levels from being the final cleanup achieved (i.e., it's not confined to immediate response of emergency phase)."

Care for a glass of rocket fuel?: EPA ignores a toxic threat Melamine contamination of Chinese milk products has sickened more than 50,000 infants. Tens of thousands have been hospitalized, including a few who have died. Now all of Asia is in a panic.

A chapter in the history of the uranium industry in western Colorado closed today when the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) certified the completion of the 20-year cleanup of the Uravan Mill Superfund Site.

Perchlorate, a toxic component of rocket fuel that contaminates drinking water at sites in at least 35 states, will not be regulated at the national level the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency has decided. The agency announced its preliminary decision not to regulate perchlorate in drinking water late Friday. Instead, the EPA said in a statement that it is "committed to working with states and localities to ensure public health is protected."

U.S. Environmental Protection Agency and Navajo EPA, along with four federal agencies, outlined a five-year plan Wednesday to clean up 50 years of uranium contamination on the Navajo Nation.

Environmental Laboratory Advisory Board (ELAB) Meeting Dates, and Agenda AGENCY: Environmental Protection Agency (EPA). ACTION: Notice of Teleconference Meetings. ----------------------------------------------------------------------- SUMMARY: The Environmental Protection Agency's Environmental Laboratory Advisory Board (ELAB), as previously announced, will have teleconference meetings on August 20, 2008 at 1 p.m. ET; September 17, 2008 at 1 p.m. ET;

Ohio EPA will hold a public information session and hearing at 6:30 p.m., July 24, at Woodmore High School, 633 Fremont St., Elmore, to accept comments on a draft air pollution control permit for a primary beryllium production facility at the Brush Wellman plant in Elmore.

The Nuclear Regulatory Commission has approved a final rule incorporating the Environmental Protection Agency's radiation protection standards for the proposed high-level waste repository at Yucca Mountain, Nev., for the period beyond 10,000 years and up to 1 million years. The rule, to be published soon in the Federal Register, makes NRC's regulations for the repository in 10 CFR Part 63 consistent with the EPA's revised standards, as required by law. The EPA's final standard was issued Sept. 30, 2008. The EPA's revised standards and the NRC's rulemaking were required by the July 9, 2004, ruling of the U.S. Court of Appeals for the D.C. Circuit, which overturned EPA's earlier standard that limited the compliance period to 10,000 years. EPA published its proposed revisions Aug. 22, 2005, and NRC published a proposed rule adopting EPA's revisions and requesting public comment on Sept. 8, 2005. The Federal Register notice with NRC's final rule includes the NRC staff's responses to public comments on the proposed rule, as well as a regulatory analysis of the final rule. The final rule retains EPA's standard dose limit for individuals of 15 millirem for the first 10,000 years after disposal and adopts EPA's 100 millirem dose limit for the period after 10,000 years and up to 1 million years. It will be posted on the NRC Web site here: http://www.nrc.gov/reading-rm/doc-collections/fedreg/notices/. The rule will become effective 30 days following publication.

The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency has reached an agreement with United Nuclear Corp. and its parent company, General Electric Co., to clean up soil near the most badly contaminated former uranium mine on the Navajo Nation. Rain and flash floods carry the radium-contaminated soil from the abandoned Northeast Church Rock Mine near Gallup, N.M., down an arroyo where children play and livestock graze. Long-term exposure to such soil can lead to cataracts, fractured teeth and cancer, according to the EPA. Under the agreement announced this week, United Nuclear will remove 3 to 13 feet of soil from the arroyo and surrounding areas and bring in clean dirt. The company also will regrade a uranium waste pile so that it drains back to the mine instead of where people live.

The Environmental Protection Agency, complying with a court order, will develop a rule to guarantee companies that mine everything from copper to uranium will pay for needed environmental cleanup, not taxpayers. The announcement on Monday comes in the wake of a federal judge's order in February requiring the EPA to close loopholes that allow some companies to get out of paying for such costly cleanups when they file bankruptcy. The agency said it will develop similar financial responsibility requirements for other types of operations but started with hardrock mining because of the size of the operations, the amount of waste and the number of mining sites on its Superfund's national priorities list.