Jeff Brooks-Gillies

Whose job is it to reduce toxic mercury in the Ohio River?
Anglers at the Falls of the Ohio State Park. (Credit: William Alden/flickr)

Whose job is it to reduce toxic mercury in the Ohio River?

The brain-harming metal is discharged directly into the river and carried to it on air currents. Some argue authorities are doing too little to stop both routes of pollution.

Mercury, which damages young brains, is flowing through industrial wastewater into the Ohio River. But the multi-state agency tasked with keeping the waterway clean hasn't tightened controls on this pollution because it doesn't have the authority to do so.

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Fighting pollution and apathy on the Lower Ohio

Fighting pollution and apathy on the Lower Ohio

NEW ALBANY, Ind. — When Jason Flickner was a kid, he built a dam on the creek behind his grandparents' house causing it to flood a neighbor's basement.

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Trump administration’s regulatory rollback playing out at Indiana coal plant.

An Indiana utility will delay its plan to install top-of-the-line wastewater pollution controls at its largest coal plant as the U.S. EPA reconsiders the federal Obama-era rule that prompted the upgrades.

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Respect the elderly: Saving cities’ oldest trees.
Daniel Axler

Respect the elderly: Saving cities’ oldest trees.

INDIANAPOLIS—Jeff Stant was nervous. He passed easily through the undergrowth and spring pools of an unlikely old growth forest standing five miles from downtown Indianapolis, but he was looking out for contractors working for the U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs.

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Indiana pursuing coal retirements despite uncertainty over federal energy policy.

Indiana coal advocates hope President-elect Donald Trump’s anti-regulation stance will bring a competitive boost to their beleaguered industry. But the state’s utilities have shown they’ll continue moving away from coal, driven by the low price of natural gas and the costs of meeting pollution regulations that won’t be easy to roll back.

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