This comes after a recent EPA risk assessment draft showed exposure to coal ash used as fill can increase peoples risk of cancer and other health issues.

That’s according to a proposed lead and copper rule the agency announced on Thursday in a big move to protect kids and vulnerable people from exposure.

Oil refineries emit benzene a chemical that can cause cancer and other health problems. From 2018 to 2021, 25 oil refineries in the U.S. had high levels of benzene at their fence lines for more than two weeks after the plants should have taken action to lower them.

The Environmental Protection Agency wants to phase out the use of PCE a chemical used in dry cleaning, products like brake cleaners and brake pad glue, and some industrial processes.

Every five years, the EPA is supposed to review new pollution control technology and set stricter limits for pollutants as those treatments improve. But the standards for facilities like BP's Whiting Refinery in northwest Indiana havent been updated since the '80s.

Tradebe Treatment and Recycling, LLC wants to store hazardous waste for longer time periods than what's usually allowed.

The agency hopes the standards will prevent thousands of deaths and tens of thousands of serious illnesses.

The EPA has proposed lowering the amount of soot from 12 micrograms per cubic meter of air to somewhere between 9 and 10. The agency said that could save about 4,200 lives every year.

Unlike some other grants, state and local governments will have to work with community-based nonprofits to get that money and some will go to those nonprofits directly.

An Elkhart County Superfund site may soon be getting cleaned up, after former RV furniture manufacturer Flexsteel Industries agreed to pay nearly $10 million to do so under a consent decree with the Department of Justice.