POLLUTION

It's Earth Day so we check in with folx with environmentally forward missions. We learn about light pollution, waterway ecosystems and agricultural transportation and distribution.

Today on The Rundown, panelists continue a news retrospective for 2024 by discussing efforts to clean up toxic waste, how western Mass. institutions begin repatriation processes of Native remains and artifacts, and the ongoing impacts of a deregulated climate.

General Electric revised its transportation plan to rely less on trucks and more on pumping PCB waste out of the Housatonic River to a disposal facility in Lee, Massachusetts. But town officials are calling for more of the waste to be taken by rail to special out-of-state landfills.

The City Council in Springfield, Massachusetts, made the first step this week towards passing an ordinance to raise the fine for illegal dumping to $500 for each offense. Currently, the maximum fine is $300, imposed after a series of repeat offenses.

As lawmakers on Beacon Hill continue their budget planning, we finally get a look at the state Senate's proposal.

A Springfield scrap metal company has agreed to pay $165,000 to settle allegations it improperly discharged industrial storm water.

Longtime environmental advocate Thelma Barzottini was remembered recently by Housatonic River cleanup activists and government regulators as a sweet person who was passionate about cleaning up PCBs.

The Materials Innovation and Recycling Authority — a trash-to-energy collaborative in Hartford — will close in the coming months.

If Hartford exits MIRA, people in surrounding towns could soon be paying more to get rid of their trash.

Almost the entire class of PFAS chemicals — of which there are thousands — will be added to the state's list of "Toxic or Hazardous Substances."