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"As hope dimmed for the lives of 11 crew members missing since a drilling rig exploded in flames in the Gulf of Mexico, authorities turned their focus to controlling an oil spill that could threaten the fragile ecosystem of the Louisiana and Mississippi coasts." Latest news accounts vary on how much oil, if any, may still be seeping to
the surface from the deepwater well.
 

"U.S. Environmental Protection Agency inspectors say a large ash pond at LG&E's Mill Creek power plant is close enough to homes and a school to be classified as high risk."

The U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service commissioned a panel of experts to draw up maps and recommendations on how to save the Florida panther -- then buried the report.

"A new report by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention has confirmed a new strain of norovirus, which has sickened dozens of people and forced the closure of several oyster harvest areas in the Louisiana area." Most of the beds have been reopened after tests proved them safe.

"A federal judge in Miami on Wednesday threatened the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency with contempt of court in a ruling that accuses the agency of ignoring federal Clean Water Act requirements in Florida's Everglades."

"An 18,000 gallon spill of crude oil from a pipeline into the Delta National Wildlife Refuge has personnel from the U.S. Coast Guard, the state of Louisiana, and the Cypress Pipe Line Company scrambling to contain the spreading mess."

North Carolina "largely ignores millions of tons of ash from coal-fired power plants that threatens to contaminate N.C. groundwater, lakes and streams, the N.C. Sierra Club says in a report today."

Pollution at many of Florida's best-known springs is killing aquatic ecosystems. Time is running out in this session of the legislature for a bill aimed at repairing and protecting Florida's aquatic gems.

"A new mountain of ash and other waste from coal burning would rise next to the Ohio River as part of an LG&E plan to replace a nearly 30-year-old dump that's almost full."

"African-American residents of Mossville, a community just west of Lake Charles, have won a hearing before the Inter-American Commission on Human Rights on charges that the U.S. government has violated their rights to privacy and racial equality in not forcing local chemical plants to stop polluting."