Articles by Grist staff

King Mekong

The four nations downstream from China on the Mekong River have expressed environmental and economic concerns about the country’s plans to build six dams on the river. Kristensen, chief executive of a commission representing Cambodia, Laos, Thailand, and Vietnam, said, “China needs to realize that the Mekong River is one ecological system that should be […]

Fission Advisory?

Native Americans who fished in the Columbia River may have been exposed to much more radiation from the Hanford Nuclear Reservation than previously thought, according to a draft report prepared for the federal government. Earlier research estimating the exposure rates for people living downwind of Hanford assumed that people ate about 90 pounds of fish […]

This Old Coal-fired Power Plant

Even as the Bush administration works to relax clean-air regulations on coal-fired power plants, New Jersey’s biggest energy supplier agreed yesterday to spend $337 million over the next 10 years to cut emissions from two plants. U.S. Attorney General John Ashcroft said the settlement between PSEG Power showed a “continuing commitment to enforce vigorously the […]

Toms of Pain

One chapter in the long saga of the Toms River pollution case came to a close recently when companies accused of polluting the water in the New Jersey town agreed to compensate children who were stricken with cancer and siblings who suffered emotional distress. The details of the financial arrangement, which were released yesterday, show […]