The Allegheny Front

The Pennsylvania Department of Environmental Protection has fined Shell $15 million for air quality violations at its Monaca, Pa. plastics plant. The agency says between 2023 and August 2026, Shell’s plant, called an ethane cracker, exceeded limits on visible emissions set by its state-issued air permit on more than two dozen occasions.

Your next waterfall adventure starts here. If you happen to be looking for waterfalls near Pittsburgh, PA you are in luck, because there are quite a few waterfalls only a small distance away! Here I’ve compiled a list of three waterfalls I think are worth checking out if you want to get out and explore nature a bit, but you still want to make it home in time for dinner.

Points North, a podcast about the land, water, and inhabitants of the Upper Great Lakes, is produced by Interlochen Public Radio. Subscribe and listen to Points North wherever you find podcasts: Apple | Spotify Anthony Williams is a bit of a celebrity. But probably not the kind you think. His fame comes from fungi. Back in the 1970s, the morel mushroom was becoming popular in the gourmet restaurant scene in the U.S., and Tony knew where to find them. He was an expert hunter and picker.

A morel mushroom hunter is willing to share his expertise but not his best morel hotspots, which are a family secret that’s been passed down for generations. There’s an underground network between fungi and roots that allows trees to communicate in forests. Our environmental guide through Pennsylvania continues, and this time we’re chasing waterfalls. There are now over 30 routes and 2,000 miles for gravel cyclists to ride in northeastern Pennsylvania.

This story comes from our partner, 90.5 WESA. There are more than 1 million small businesses in Pennsylvania that collectively employ 2.5 million people — about half of the state’s private workforce. The report said that segment of the economy typically operates on slim margins, and may not be able to absorb the higher electricity costs being driven by data center development.

Pennsylvania cattle producers are joining other beef industry leaders speaking out against President Trump’s effort to lower beef prices. With the cost of ground beef at an all time high, Trump is allowing 300,000 metric tons of lean beef trimmings to enter the United States over the next three months, at a reduced tariff rate, and sold at 25% below market prices.

A team of archaeologists is looking for signs of early life in the Americas at the bottom of Lake Erie. A Pennsylvania environmental group is out with a new playbook to move the state away from fossil fuels. The landmark environmental rights amendment in Pennsylvania’s constitution was created by a man who grew up in coal country. An artist is donating the proceeds from a series of drawings to a central Pennsylvania watershed group.

This story was first published on October 25, 2018 Over 50 years ago, a young legislator named Franklin Kury wanted to guarantee Pennsylvanians the right to clean air and water. Working with other environmental advocates, he got Article 1, Section 27 amended to the state constitution in 1971. It states: The people have a right to clean air, pure water, and to the preservation of the natural, scenic, historic and esthetic values of the environment.

In the 1800’s, Virginia artist Sally Veach’s family members were among many in central Pennsylvania that leased land and profited from coal mining. Now those same mines in Center and Clearfield Counties are leaking acidic mine drainage, full of metals and minerals, into local waterways – turning them orange and killing aquatic life. Her Yellow Boy project includes a series of drawings using ochre pigment made from Appalachian acid mine drainage sludge.

This story comes from our partners at WPSU. Pennsylvania Game Commission Pennsylvania’s deputy game wardens typically do law enforcement patrols and investigations, nuisance wildlife control, hunter-trapper education classes and educational programs according to a now deleted page on the Pennsylvania Game Commission’s website. The Pennsylvania Game Commission is ending its Deputy Game Warden program on September 1, affecting about 140 wardens across the state.