China’s most prominent environmental activist talks about the country’s pollution crisis.

The EPA likely won’t be able to determine the source of a late October oil spill in the Chicago River because the agency was notified about the spill two days after it occurred, the EPA said Tuesday. 

Environmental advocates say a Southeast Side storage company violated city standards for air pollution earlier this year. But the company disagrees, asserting that the state’s more lenient law applies. 

Two months after becoming the first company approved for fracking in Illinois, Woolsey Operating Company has withdrawn its permit. 

Officials responding to last week’s oil spill in the South Branch of the Chicago River have recovered dead wildlife from the water, including 43 fish and four turtles. The source of the spill is still unknown, according to the EPA. 

After cutbacks at the EPA and skepticism within the Trump administration about climate change, the city of Chicago has made clear its intention to step up efforts to protect the environment.

The EPA says the source of an Oct. 26 oil spill remains unknown, but cleanup efforts continue this week along the 1.5-mile stretch of the south fork of the South Branch of the Chicago River.

A Southeast Side company tipped off regulators to its own violation of city air pollution standards, documents submitted to the city show. 

In an effort to fill a void created by federal and state agencies that have cut back environmental oversight, Chicago plans to expand its environmental enforcement division.

U.S. Sen. Dick Durbin is among a handful of legislators behind a bill that would strengthen legal protections for communities disproportionately impacted by pollution and other environmental threats.

Researchers analyzed 1,000 birds collected over the last 135 years by the Field Museum and other institutions to track the amount of soot in the air of Rust Belt cities. 

Since 2010, the EPA has cited an East Chicago steelmaking facility six times for violations of the Clean Air Act. Now, a group representing nearby residents intends to sue EPA Administrator Scott Pruitt over the renewal of the company’s operating permit.

Researchers from the University of Chicago and University of Illinois at Chicago will join forces to study the health effects of pollution on local residents, thanks to a $4 million grant from the National Institutes of Health.

Sea creatures made from flip-flops, beach toys, water bottles and other plastic garbage that washed ashore are part of a new exhibit illuminating the proliferation of pollution in the world’s waterways.

A Kansas company that last week won approval of Illinois’ first horizontal fracking permit has been cited with more than two dozen violations in multiple states, records show.

Chicago public health officials have given the Southeast Side company an additional week to come up with an improved plan for reducing emissions of manganese dust.