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

Gallatin Fossil Plant. By Tennessee Valley Authority (tva.com) [Public domain], via Wikimedia Commons.

  • Residents in Rapid City, South Dakota, are about to be paying more in property taxes after the city council approved a one percent increase.
  • A landfill in Michigan has high levels of methane, and officials fear the gas from the Superfund site might be reaching nearby homes.
  • Coal ash removal from the Gallatin Fossil Plant in Tennessee could last 24 years, according to officials at the plant.
  • Following the destruction by Hurricane Harvey, possible contamination is one more concern facing property owners in Texas. The metallic dust was first observed several months ago covering homes and vehicles, but the winds and rain from the recent hurricane may have spread the contaminant throughout the Portland, Texas, area.
  • A new way to map oil spills, which is being utilized along the coast of Nova Scotia, might one day aid cleanup crews.
  • Property owners along the paths of two different proposed pipelines in several mid-Atlantic states filed a lawsuit to prevent the use of eminent domain to acquire land for the projects.
  • Missouri Governor Eric Greitens said he is opposed to increasing the state’s minimum wage to $15. Raising the minimum wage has been a point of contention in the state. Kansas City voters approved a measure to raise the city’s minimum wage to $10, but a state law reverted the city’s minimum wage back to $7.70 an hour.
  • The Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) rejected a plan by Dow Chemical to clean up pollution at the company’s complex in West Virginia.
  • Michigan Sugar Co. faces a lawsuit over alleged odor and water pollution violations.
  • The first hydraulic fracturing operations in Illinois are set to get underway soon. The state approved the use of fracking more than four years ago.