EPA tightens air quality standard for the first time in 12 years

WASHINGTON- The Environmental Protection Agency announced a new standard for air quality aimed to reduce pollution. The agency predicts this strengthened standard will prevent up to 4,500 premature deaths and avoid an estimated 800,000 cases of asthma symptoms. It targets…

Maryland needs to do more to enforce anti-lead laws, advocates say

Advocates are calling on Maryland leaders to boost spending on anti-lead programs and improve enforcement.

Chesapeake Bay area lawmakers urge EPA to enforce pollution standards

Pennsylvania and New York fell short in meeting their pollution reduction goals to reduce Chesapeake Bay pollution sources by 2025. Lawmakers are pushing the Billion for the Bay Initiative to obtain more federal funding for Bay cleanup.

UMD flights help the state understand air quality

The Regional Atmospheric Measurement Modeling and Prediction Program or RAMMPP, comprised of University of Maryland researchers and students, has helped the Maryland Department of the Environment improve regional air quality since 1999 by tracking how the ingredients for smog can originate from upwind states.
Due to Maryland’s geography and size, the state’s air quality is often affected by what is coming out of smokestacks upwind.
Traffic, development density and proximity to water — particularly the Chesapeake Bay and Atlantic — also contribute to the state’s dirty air.

Maryland continues funding for protective crop plantings

About $5 million the state of Maryland has set aside for farmers to plant protective crops has gone wanting in recent years.

Frosh’s broad legal power: Partisanship or ‘long overdue’?

Maryland Attorney General Brian Frosh was granted broad authority to sue the federal government last year. In the 19 month since, he has made good on his newfound autonomy.

The Washington Bullpen, Episode 10

This week in “The Washington Bullpen” podcast, hosts Julia Karron and Jarod Golub of the Capital News Service Washington Bureau talk about the city’s iconic cherry blossoms, big trouble at the Environmental Protection Agency and teacher strikes in Kentucky and…

Maryland’s Chesapeake Bay defenders hold breath, wait on Senate

WASHINGTON — If the Senate does not restore a deep, House-passed cut in federal funding to the Environmental Protection Agency’s Chesapeake Bay Program, the ripple effect on Maryland conservation efforts could be far larger than what the state would lose…

Threats mount against Chesapeake Bay conservation efforts

After years of steady progress for Chesapeake Bay clean-up efforts, the conservation outlook is increasingly bleak for the country’s largest estuary—and the state that depends on it most, Maryland—says bay advocates.

EPA funds pediatric asthma study at Johns Hopkins for Baltimore’s at-risk youth

Twenty percent of children in Baltimore suffer from asthma, which is more than double the national average. Lawmakers are taking the first step in clearing the air by funding a Johns Hopkins study that may bring them closer to preventing pediatric asthma.