These are some of the stories we’ve been following this week.

  • Researchers have developed a new way to clean up oil spills. The cost-effective material congeals oil, making it easier to remove it from water.
  • A water utility in Alabama is suing 32 carpet manufacturers in north Georgia, alleging that the companies release toxic chemicals into the water supply, and that those chemicals eventually make their way downstream into Alabama.
  • Residents in Baltimore want officials to look into their safety concerns of the “blast zone” in the city where 165,000 residents live along railroad tracks that regularly carry oil trains that if derailed could explode.
  • Duke Energy is building a coal-ash landfill at the site of the former Dan River plant. The North Carolina landfill will be able to hold 1.7 million tons of coal ash.
  • It’s been a year since a methane leak forced thousands out of their homes in Porter Ranch, California. Methane injections could soon be starting back up at the storage facility responsible for the leak.
  • A pipeline that supplies much of the east coast with gasoline and diesel fuel shut down earlier this week after an explosion that killed one worker and injured several others. It was the second time the pipeline had to be shut down in recent months.