[naviga:h3]$115M cleanup for Houston site[/naviga:h3]

HOUSTON — The Environmental Protection Agency says it approved a plan to remove sediments laced with highly toxic dioxin from a partially submerged Superfund site near Houston damaged during Hurricane Harvey.

Wednesday’s announcement comes two weeks after the agency said an unknown amount of dioxins may have washed downriver from the San Jacinto Waste Pits after floodwaters loosened a protective cap of fabric and rock designed to keep them from spreading.

Dioxins have been linked to birth defects and cancer.

The EPA says it plans to excavate 212,000 cubic yards of contaminated material from the site along the San Jacinto River that was once a paper mill. It estimated the cost at $115 million.

[naviga:h3]Job openings at near-record levels[/naviga:h3]

WASHINGTON — U.S. employers are advertising near-record levels of job openings, though the total slipped in August from July.

Job openings fell 0.9 percent in August to just under 6.1 million, the Labor Department said Wednesday, from 6.14 million in the previous month. July’s figure was revised slightly lower but is still the largest number of available jobs since records began in December 2000.

The unemployment rate, currently 4.2 percent, has hit a 16-year low.

[naviga:h3]Merck scraps cholesterol drug[/naviga:h3]

TRENTON, N.J. — Merck has decided to abandon efforts to market a closely watched experimental cholesterol medicine after mediocre test results.

Merck’s decision Wednesday to not seek regulatory approval after years of testing marks the fourth time this type of once-promising drug has been scrapped.

Merck raised hopes when it announced in June that anacetrapib not only lowered cholesterol, but also reduced heart attacks and deaths. But in August it disclosed the pill only cut those risks 9 percent.