Chemical giant Chemours has agreed to pay $22.5M in fines & $90M in mitigation under a landmark deal over PFAS pollution announced by the Trump administration. But North Carolina says the agreement does little to help the hundreds of thousands of people affected by Chemours' Fayetteville, NC plant.

This is my final story as an NPR correspondent. After more than 22 years at the network, I was among those laid off in a reorganization. www.npr.org/2026/06/01/n...

Don't miss this killer story from Corbin, @chelseaeharvey.bsky.social and Lesley Clark on the quiet forces aligning to attack climate research.

Yazoo Pumps are back, and they're going to cost a lot more than was previously estimated. Still missing, though, is a cost-benefit analysis from the Army Corps to show that the project - which seeks to reduce flooding for ~780 homes & 100s of thousands of acres of rural cropland - is worth the cost.

xAI has abruptly stopped work on a water reuse facility aimed at reducing a Memphis-area data center's strain on the local drinking water source. The move comes as SpaceX preps to launch the biggest IPO in history. My latest with @mirandawrites.bsky.social www.eenews.net/articles/xai...

EPA Chief Lee Zeldin is good at tailoring his message to MAGA media. But that sometimes puts him at odds with EPA's official justifications for actions -- whether it be a rule or the cancellation of a grant. And that could be a liability if he moves over to DOJ: www.eenews.net/articles/fro...

No one wanted to redevelop this polluted property. Then came AI.

In E&E News, @zialyle.bsky.social & I talked with @mirandawrites.bsky.social about the new paper Zia led finding climate risks at drinking water utilities (www.nature.com/articles/s43...). EPA eliminated a program that helped water utilities prepare for climate change. www.eenews.net/articles/epa...

Washington State came up with a crafty bit of policy to get around Trump's order to keep the Centralia coal plant open — tax the plant into oblivion. (Disclaimer: requires cap and trade law.) heatmap.news/energy/washi...

NEW with @ruthreader.bsky.social: Some Democrats see an opening to win over MAHA voters ahead of November as the movement's frustrations with the Trump administration reach a breaking point www.politico.com/news/2026/03...

“We were very fortunate that the collapse occurred downstream from the primary drinking water intakes,” said Michael Nardolilli, executive director of the Interstate Commission on the Potomac River Basin. “It’s better to be lucky than good, but there’s only so much luck that can go around here.”

Great story, with charts and detailed breakdowns, about the exodus of EPA career staff (especially research scientists) over the past year from my colleague @kevinbogardus.bsky.social subscriber.politicopro.com/article/eene...

Trump fixates on sewage, a favored talking point, in fight with Wes Moore

There is no evidence that vaccines cause autism, but there is growing research that shows a link between wildfire smoke exposure in pregnant mothers and autism diagnoses. Two studies published in the last month indicate wildfire smoke has profound neurological impacts: grist.org/health/growi...

“This sounds more like the commander [was] looking out for public safety & ensuring he can deliver benefits like recreation & flood control for all the taxpayers, not just those that complain about good development standards,” said a former Army Corps official, who sees the firing as highly unusual.

“The affordability issue is already a challenge, & this is going to exacerbate that even further,” said Tony Parrott, who heads up the sewer district in Louisville, Kentucky. “If we’re losing that layer of wetlands as a tool, it means we’re going to have to make larger investments on the back end.”

EPA's push to limit the scope of the Clean Water Act continued today, with the agency releasing a new rule that could make it harder for states to block energy projects that have the potential to pollute waterways.

Public records released via an environmental group's Freedom of Information Act request show few residents took the initiative to respond, and those who did were critical and "embarrassed" by the Trump administration's effort.

“I don’t think we have enough good data to know how much [water] is being used,” said Virginia state Sen. Richard Stuart, a Republican in the Virginia legislature whose district has become a hub for data centers.

A neutral arbiter agrees: @politico.com violated our contract and its own journalistic standards when it deployed AI. Our readers deserve news, not slop! wbng.org/2025/12/01/p...

Meet the Republicans who killed solar subsidies — after using them

New: Conde Nast fired four employees who were among a group that confronted the company's head of human resources on Wednesday over the decision to fold Teen Vogue into Vogue/recent cuts. Employees who were fired included journalists from the New Yorker, Wired, and Bon Appétit.

Recently, I started to look into how PFAS chemicals came to be a Pennsylvania town's drinking water. I had heard the PFAS might have come from a surprising source: an EPA-approved cleanup plan at a Superfund site. Now, EPA has found that the use of sewage sludge during cleanup was a likely factor.

EPA still has a "walking around money" left over in fy 2026. But it's choosing to furlough some people while others remain on the job and drawing a paycheck. It appears to be keeping those working on deregulation and other priorities. @ellieborst.bsky.social and I: www.eenews.net/articles/epa...

You may have read about Kipnuk, an Alaska village devastated by a typhoon months after EPA nixed $$ for climate resilience projects. Huslia, in interior Alaska, similarly lost a $20 million EPA grant to help protect itself. "We don’t want the history of our village to keep getting flushed away."

SCOOP from me: I uncovered that the Interior Department just quietly defunded *two* multimillion dollar research programs studying how whales move and behave near U.S. wind farms actively being built. Trump blames wind turbines for whale deaths, then cuts vital research on the topic. 🧵

EPA "keeps saying it will come soon, and we keep waiting, and now we’re in a shutdown," one environmental advocate said of the funding delay.

Trump & his Cabinet say wind & solar are making electricity more expensive. Federal data say the opposite. Our analysis showed states w/ > avg wind/solar generation & > avg acceleration of wind/solar since ‘21 were likelier to have < avg power prices. www.politico.com/news/2025/10...

The Trump administration has ended a longstanding partnership between EPA and a national nonprofit that supports state wetland programs. The agreement was a major source of funding for the National Association of Wetland Managers, which is now having to cut four of its nine staff positions.

Will allowing coal plants to continue with outdated water pollution controls actually save Americans' money, as the Trump administration has said? Maybe not, according to the agency's own cost-benefit analysis. subscriber.politicopro.com/article/eene...

For at least two days last month, federal workers could not clean up the black oily goop in this Louisianan town beca of funding issues and a legitimate threat of gun violence. My latest:

Studies on future "nonstructural" flood control projects are paused at the Army Corps of Engineers. Rather than hold back floodwaters through things like levees & seawalls, these projects aim to reduce flood harms, by elevating homes, flood-proofing properties & offering people buyouts.

Katrina inspired a $3B wetlands rebuilding project. Louisiana just killed it.

EPA has proposed a regulation under the Clean Water Act that could eliminate protections for many wetlands and small streams. I obtained slides from a presentation given to agency staff yesterday with details on the rule, which is currently being reviewed by the White House.

@politico.com’s E&E News first reported on the March EPA meeting back in April, and today, @mirandawrites.bsky.social posted an update about the meeting citing the new @nsarchive.bsky.social docs. Read her piece here: www.eenews.net/articles/ghg...

“If we're not going to see this kind of funding from the EPA, where is it going to show up?” Preisendanz said. “PFAS research is so expensive. You can fund the student, but if that student doesn't have money for sample analysis or sample collection, it's not very helpful."

EPA ordered a member of its drinking water advisory council to “cease all work” for the agency after she signed a letter criticizing Administrator Lee Zeldin’s policies. She is now being investigated by EPA.

A looming global water crisis may be under appreciated as climate change takes hold. Today I report on a new study that finds the planet is quickly drying, with mega-regions of water loss now stretching across continents. www.propublica.org/article/wate...

A coalition of North Carolina fishing guides, wildlife biologists & environmentalists say the colossal FEMA-funded cleanup after Hurricane Helene has left rural stretches of rivers less healthy than they were after the storm and caused more damage to endangered species than the storm itself.

The Trump administration reached an agreement with Mexico to work toward resolving a sewage pollution crisis at the San Diego-Tijuana border. Experts welcomed the news, while noting that there's no silver bullet & that the Mexican Congress still needs to agree to fund infrastructure improvements.

A 24,960-acre site in the Everglades teeming with wildlife will soon house a "temporary" migrant jail. Gov. DeSantis is citing an emergency order on immigration to move forward quickly. Unclear if environmental permits are needed, but 96% of the site is covered in wetlands, one group says.

PFAS manufacturers are making the case that they’re essential to winning the AI race & making semiconductors in the U.S. — a priority under both Trump and Biden. Now, two major chemical plants are seeking to ramp up production, spurring fresh concerns about pollution from the man-made substances.

When EPA announced a crackdown on a West Virginia chemical plant in 2023, it was hailed as the first federal action to hold PFAS manufacturers accountable for polluting water. But the plant continues to violate its permit limits for PFAS, which experts say are not very protective to begin with.

EPA is dissolving its dedicated research & science team in the Office of Water and dispersing its staff across different departments. The change affects the team that develops standards for industrial pollutants, including toxic PFAS, to prevent them from getting into rivers, lakes and streams.

Environmental regulators from red & blue states say proposed EPA budget cuts could force them to give up their federal permitting authorities. Republicans have long argued that states, not EPA, should carry out programs under laws like the Clean Water Act. But they need funding to do so.

Tomorrow, @mirandawrites.bsky.social and I will be at Politics and Prose at The Wharf politics-prose.com/rachel-frazin

DC friends, in two days you can join me and @mirandawrites.bsky.social for a discussion on PFAS and my new book! See ya soon!! #BookSky politics-prose.com/rachel-frazin