R.J. Matson/Post-Dispatch

The Doe Run Company has been operating a giant lead smelter in Herculaneum for decades. For just as long, elevated lead levels have been found in people, properties and roads around it.

The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency and the Missouri Department…

Each year, U.S. power plants generate enough coal ash to fill 1 million railroad cars. It contains toxic metals — including  arsenic, lead, selenium and mercury — that can cause cancer and other serious health problems.
Individually, each of those toxins…

A view of Doe Run Company's Herculaneum smelter, 2003 file photo

The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency last week drastically cut the amount of lead permitted in the air around lead smelters and mines. That’s good news for Missouri and for Jefferson County…

The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency is proposing significantly tighter air pollution standards for lead — the first update in 30 years. It’s long overdue.

But in announcing the new rule, the Bush administration ignored recommendations from independent scientific advisers who had called for…