Sprawl’s aquatic pollution

A new study links the traffic associated with urban sprawl to an unexpectedly large rain of air pollutants entering local waters. Scientists with the U.S. Geological Survey studied carcinogens known as polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons (PAHs) that had collected in reservoirs in six states. Neighborhoods around some of the 10 sites in the study were long-established and compact; others, young and sprawling.