Environment & Science

Nine projects across Pennsylvania are included in the round of funding, awarded through the U.S. Department of Agriculture’s Specialty Crop Block Grant Program. The projects focus on research, marketing, apprenticeships and sustainability for mushrooms, apples, potatoes and other crops.

Less than a month after a strong, bad smell permeated through the city and surrounding areas for several days, prompting a state Department of Environmental Protection investigation, the odor has returned.

Lehigh Valley Breathes is behind schedule from the course established in August 2023. Here's what officials have learned so far — and how they plan to proceed.

The Lehigh Valley has been reshaped by a massive wave of development, both in industrial and residential, that has swept over the region the last three decades. While the development boom may be slowing, the impacts to the region’s economy and the environment are clear. (First of 5 parts)

The planets Jupiter and Mars will share a small patch of the eastern sky with the crescent moon, and the star Aldebaran on August 27. Here's how to see it.

A renewable natural gas plant adjacent to the Bethlehem Landfill opened on Tuesday morning.

The free exhibit, “America’s Beautiful,” at Lehigh Gap Nature Center runs from Aug. 21 to Aug. 29. It includes 50 watercolor paintings of Smokey Bear.

More than eight months after announcing a $600 million price tag over the next decade to upgrade aging water and wastewater treatment infrastructure, the Lehigh County Authority is reaching out to major industrial users.

A full moon is on display the evening of Monday, August 19. The full moon of each month has one or more traditional names, and the August full moon is known as ‘the Sturgeon Moon.’

Wednesday marked the end of the first round of a three-year initiative called TOWERS, or Tackling Obstacles for Women’s Engagement and Retention in STEM, at Cedar Crest. Through the program, incoming freshmen are paired with mentors to complete science projects, gaining confidence and community along the way.

A tropical system that was officially named Ophelia on Friday will drench the East Coast this weekend, including the Lehigh Valley, officials said.

The free festival runs from 10 a.m. to 3 p.m. at the center. The schedule includes nature walks, live animal presentations, monarch butterfly tagging, music and more.

Northampton County and its conservation district appear poised to split after a County Council committee meeting Wednesday showed deep distrust between them

Lehigh Valley Breathes, a Valley-wide effort, aims to measure air quality. From the collected data, officials said they will make recommendations for improvements.

It’s becoming increasingly probable that a subtropical storm develops off the Southeast coast this weekend, forecasters say, but expected impacts to the Lehigh Valley remain in question.

It took less than two weeks to fix operational issues at Kline’s Island Wastewater Treatment Plant on Union Street. Officials described the sewer odor as an ‘"earthy" or "rotten egg" smell but said it is not harmful to human health.

The average price for a gallon of gas in the Lehigh Valley was $3.87 this week. That's below the Pennsylvania average of $3.92 per gallon but up slightly more than 11 cents from last week, according to AAA.

The letter-writing campaign began Sept. 9. It is unclear how many emails city councilmembers have so far received.

Released Tuesday, results from Muhlenberg College Institute of Public Opinion’s National Surveys on Energy and the Environment show Americans want to prevent future global warming, and also believe adaptation to climate change will require major lifestyle changes.

The biggest differences between tropical and subtropical storms are in the way they form and in the broad impacts. A subtropical system could target the region this weekend.

A heat map generated from PennDOT crash statistics shows a high rate of collisions involving deer and vehicles — the Lehigh Valley included. Pennsylvania also ranked No. 3 overall for the likelihood of having an animal-vehicle collision.

Several Lehigh Valley residents reported witnessing a string of lights in the sky in the Allentown and Bethlehem areas on Saturday night, Sept. 16.