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EPA sends people, planes to gauge pollution from Texas storm.

The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency said on Wednesday it has sent people and airplanes to assess pollution in areas hit by Tropical Storm Harvey, as concerns mount over leaks and spills from the Texas oil industry and Superfund sites.

WASHINGTON (Reuters) - The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency said on Wednesday it has sent people and airplanes to assess pollution in areas hit by Tropical Storm Harvey, as concerns mount over leaks and spills from the Texas oil industry and Superfund sites.

Harvey slammed the state's Gulf Coast on Friday as a powerful hurricane and has since dumped record rainfall in the Houston area. The region is home to scores of huge petrochemicals facilities along with dozens of heavily polluted Superfund sites, many of which have been flooded.

The EPA said it sent emergency management specialists and reconnaissance teams to the state and would inspect two high priority Superfund sites near Corpus Christi - close to where Harvey first made landfall - on Wednesday.

Superfund sites are land determined by the EPA to be contaminated with hazardous waste in need of cleanup because they pose a risk to human health or the environment.

The EPA has listed two oil waste disposal pits formerly owned by the Brine Service Company in Corpus Christi on the Superfund priorities list. The pits, 6.5 miles outside of downtown, contain drilling fluids and refinery wastes dating to the 1940s.

Many of the state's other Superfund sites affected by the storm are still inaccessible due to high water. In Harris County, home to Houston, there are 15 Superfund sites.

Flooding from Harvey also has triggered a handful of spills and releases from petrochemical facilities in Texas, according to reports filed by companies with the Texas Commission for Environmental Quality.

That includes more than 12,000 pounds of volatile organic compounds from Exxon Mobil’s massive Baytown refinery when rainwater sank a storage tank’s floating roof.

The EPA team will work with the Federal Emergency Management Agency, TCEQ, the Coast Guard and the Texas General Land Office in its work, according to the release.

"EPA continues to support TCEQ in contacting drinking water and waste water systems and will visit two systems based on information garnered," it said.

"In addition, EPA’s aerial assessment aircraft will conduct aerial reconnaissance over the impacted area, as weather permits," it said.

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Why flooding in Nigeria is an increasingly serious problem.

Rainstorms are getting more intense, sea levels are rising and infrastructure can't cope.

Earlier this year heavy rains and thunderstorms caused havoc in Lagos, Nigeria’s economic nerve centre and one of Africa’s most populous cities. Residents woke up in many parts of the city to find their streets and homes flooded and their property, including cars and other valuables, submerged.

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Fugitive sought for dumping radioactive oilfield waste.

A fugitive who escaped custody in Wyoming four years ago has been added to a list of U.S. environmental crimes fugitives and is being sought by investigators for illegally dumping radioactive oilfield waste in North Dakota in incidents dating back to 2011, authorities said Tuesday.

BILLINGS, Mont. (AP) — A fugitive who escaped custody in Wyoming four years ago has been added to a list of U.S. environmental crimes fugitives and is being sought by investigators for illegally dumping radioactive oilfield waste in North Dakota in incidents dating back to 2011, authorities said Tuesday.

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A solution for Hong Kong’s plastic waste crisis: Turn it into fuel.

A wide range of plastics cannot be recycled, or cannot be recycled any further, and end up in a landfill. Such plastics are an excellent, high energy feedstock for gasification.

July was a critical month for plastic pollution. Plastic waste now has catastrophic implications for Hong Kong, and the planet. In July, a study by the University of California, Santa Barbara provided the first global analysis of all mass-produced plastics. Media reports said plastic threatened a “near permanent contamination of the natural environment”, and called the threat a “crisis comparable to climate change”.

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Environmental Justice Australia report finds power stations are badly regulated.

Australia is trailing behind places like China when it comes to pollution standards and those living near coal-fired power stations are three times more likely to die a premature death, according to a new report.

AUSTRALIA is trailing behind places like China when it comes to pollution standards and those living near coal-fired power stations are three times more likely to die a premature death, according to a new report.

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Multiple violations found at Washington State's nuclear power plant.

The Washington State Department of Health (DOH) last month suspended indefinitely the shipment of radioactive waste from the state’s sole nuclear power plant.

Multiple violations found at state's nuclear power plant

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The terrible cost of Scotland’s salmon farms.

There are plenty of theories to explain why wild salmon seem imperiled and the truth is no one knows the overall picture. But one thing is observable: salmon farms have done enormous harm.

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