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

  • Approximately $27 million has been spent remediating a Superfund site. Taxpayer funds made up about $13 million of the money spent on the former New Hampshire landfill.
  • Property taxes in Illinois are on the rise, although home values are dropping. The increase in taxes is offsetting the budget deficits for local governments.
  • Lawmakers in Michigan approved $23 million to be spent cleaning up Per-and polyfluoroalkyl substances, or PFAS, in 14 communities across the state.
  • A new rails-to-trails project in Arkansas will convert 35 miles along an abandoned railroad track into a trail for both pedestrians and cyclists.
  • A federal appeals court upheld a lower court ruling that a Massachusetts town did not prove that the levels of contamination allegedly from Monsanto Company was harmful to people.
  • Savanna, a real estate investment firm, recently completed a $591 million capital raise. It’s the firm’s largest fund raise.
  • BP America, Chevron, ConocoPhillips, Devon Energy, and other companies in New Mexico announced they will work to reduce methane emissions at their operations.
  • Researchers with the University of Alabama in Huntsville are working to raise awareness of lead poisoning in a rural Alabama town.