Free Republic

A mysterious greenish liquid that forced lane closures after it seeped onto a Michigan interstate Friday allegedly came from a closed electroplating business whose owner is currently serving a year in federal prison for operating an unlicensed hazardous waste storage facility. Federal agencies had been called to investigate the strange oozing liquid pouring onto I-696 in Madison Heights — a suburb of Detroit — which they found to be the chemical hexavalent chromium, Michigan State Police said on Twitter on Saturday. […] The Michigan Department of Environment, Great Lakes, and Energy (EGLE) said in a statement that crews had spent...

A spill at a U.S. Steel plant in northern Indiana that sent wastewater containing a potentially carcinogenic chemical into a Lake Michigan tributary was apparently caused by a pipe failure, the steelmaker said Wednesday. Tuesday’s spill of an unknown amount of wastewater led to the closure of two beach areas at the scenic Indiana Dunes National Lakeshore and prompted a local water utility to stop drawing water from the lake out of “an abundance of caution,” the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency said. U.S. Steel said a preliminary investigation shows an expansion joint failed Tuesday in a pipe at its Portage,...

An environmental group that analyzed the drinking water in 35 cities across the United States, including Bethesda and Washington, found that most contained hexavalent chromium, a probable carcinogen that was made famous by the film "Erin Brockovich." The study, which will be released Monday by the Environmental Working Group, is the first nationwide analysis of hexavalent chromium in drinking water to be made public.

Most companies are responding to the European directives to remove lead (and other toxic substances) from their products, while others still try to figure it out. For most of the industry, lead-free means home free. At least for a while. You have likely heard by now that the European Union (EU) adopted a new directive called Restrictions on Hazardous Substances (RoHS). It eliminates or significantly reduces the use of certain substances from electronic products beginning July 1, 2006.If you haven't already done so, now might be a good time to remove most of the lead (Pb), cadmium (Cd), mercury (Hg),...