12 Pasig firms on environment watch list Water, air pollution violations eyed (INQ7.net) First posted 11:11pm (Mla time) April 24, 2006 By Edson C. Tandoc Jr. Inquirer [News Source]

Skateboarders go green. It was an unusual sight: 150 kids clutching skateboards in front of a Whole Foods Market, screaming, "No pesticides!" [News Source]

Slow death consumes Oklahoma mining town. For 23 years now, the 1,500-plus residents of an historic mining community in northeast Oklahoma have known they were in trouble, trapped by growing evidence that waste from mining operations the area once thrived on was poisoning the air, the water and the land. [News Source]

Mercury falling. Gov. Jennifer Granholm's proposal to have power plants reduce mercury emissions by 90 percent by 2015 has met with mixed reviews. [News Source]

Water crisis tallied. The price tag for the water crisis triggered by vandals who broke into the Bellingham Road water tank on March 27 has topped out at $40,797. [News Source]

Soft drink, with a twist of benzene? In the 1990s, a ruckus erupted in the beverage industry. Chemical tests revealed that benzene — a cancer-causing chemical — was present in Perrier water. [News Source]

UTA first to meet two international standards. The Utah Transit Authority has become the first transit agency in the world to satisfy strict international standards on both environmental protection and efficient management, along the way saving $1.3 million in business costs and cutting 3 million pounds from its greenhouse-gas emissions. [News Source]

Yonkers residents want to muzzle leaf blowers. Residents in Sutton and Armour Villa, New York who oppose the frequent use of leaf blowers say they are not only noisy, they pollute the air and kick up dirt and toxins from the lawns and streets and are trying to get a seasonal ban on them passed. [News Source]

The green line: pig sties clean-up attracts country’s first carbon credits. Mexico's 17.5 million piggies are depositing so much manure in the feedlots that the fumes are contributing to global warming. And these little piggies are going to the international carbon trading market. [News Source]

Chinese Premier sets out strategy to tackle environmental pollution. Chinese Premier Wen Jiabao has called for stricter measures to ensure officials responsible for pollution accidents are held to account, noting that environmental protection has still not received enough attention in some areas. [News Source]

Dust plagues people in Korea. Students, workers and others on Monday suffered the effects of a choking dust storm that blanketed the Korean peninsula. [News Source]