Pollution

"MONTPELIER, Vt. -- Vermont is about to become the first U.S. state to ban hydraulic fracturing, or fracking, for natural gas."

"It’s the kind of scenario that might evolve in Hollywood: A college professor detects drug-resistance genes collecting in local wetlands, where they survive for weeks and are spread far and wide by seabirds.

But the discovery of extra-hardy DNA flourishing on the edge of San Diego isn’t science fiction. It’s the result of research by David Cummings, a microbiologist at Point Loma Nazarene University.

"EVERETT -- For decades, the Kimberly-Clark plant provided countless jobs in Snohomish County and paper products to millions of people.

Now that it's closed, the plant is leaving behind another, not-so-positive legacy.

Dioxins -- toxic substances thought to cause cancer in humans -- have been found in the waterway next to the plant at a level 15 times higher than what the state considers safe. The dioxins in sediment under the water are a result of the bleaching process in making paper.

"The Obama administration unveiled long-awaited rules on Friday to bolster oversight on public lands of oil and natural gas drilling using fracking technology that has ushered in a boom in drilling but also triggered environmental protests."

"PORTLAND, Maine -- On April 23, heavy rains pounded Portland. The next day, many of the city’s most recognizable water bodies were the color of sewage."

"Soccer balls, motorcycles and a million other reminders of the massive tsunami in Japan a year ago are appearing along Alaska's coastlines."

"TransCanada, the company behind the disputed Keystone XL pipeline, submitted a new application for the project to the State Department on Friday, as expected. The company will route the pipeline around the environmentally sensitive Sand Hills region of Nebraska, and the revised proposal starts a fresh clock on the environmental review process."

"HARTLEY BAY, B.C. -- The Gitga'at Nation of Hartley Bay has reported an oil spill between two and five miles long in the Grenville Channel, not far from the tanker route for the proposed Enbridge Northern Gateway pipeline."

The Niagara Falls City Council, recalling the Love Canal disaster, has blocked a plan to raise revenue by using the city's sewage plant to treat the toxic waste from natural-gas drilling.

"If the Potomac River has gotten more attention than the Anacostia in the past 50 years, it’s partly because the Potomac supplies 90 percent of the region’s drinking water. That amounts to an average of 486 million gallons a day, according to the Potomac Conservancy. The Potomac watershed, which includes 14,670 miles of land that drains to the river, covers parts of West Virginia, Pennsylvania, the District, Maryland and Virginia. In the 1950s, reports of stench and dangerous levels of pollution clouded the Potomac’s reputation. But the 383-mile river wasn’t always in such bad shape."