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

  • Private wells in Clarendon, Vermont, will be tested for contamination after officials found contaminants in a well used by a nearby business park.
  • Residents in Lodi, New Jersey, are opposed to two proposed warehouses they say could cause flooding, increased traffic, and possibly contaminate the groundwater beneath homes in the area.
  • Researchers at the University of Minnesota plan to study the effects of the state’s new minimum wage increase by following 450 workers to see if the raise also improves the workers’ health. Theoretically, higher wages are positively correlated with better health.
  • Homeowners paid more than $239 billion in property taxes last year, up six percent from the prior year.
  • A rails-to-trails program is still moving forward in Racine County, Wisconsin, even though progress on the project has been slow.
  • The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) delayed responses to civil rights complaints, sometimes for more than a decade. A federal judge ruled the agency’s long response time violated the law.
  • Hydraulic fracturing operations could soon return to the UK. Cuadrilla Resources received a permit to drill a horizontal gas well, and the company plans to apply for a permit for fracking.
  • Pipeline limits for Canadian oil companies are one reason prices for Canadian oil are lower than prices of oil from the United States.