Water & Oceans

"The use of treated oil field water to raise Central Valley crops raises questions about food chain safety".

"A controversial plan to divert water from above a key California watershed, pushed hard by Governor Jerry Brown as a vital new anchor for the state's drought-parched water system, would involve far less environmental restoration than initially proposed under changes announced on Thursday."

"It would sit in the icy waters of the Arctic, and provide a constant supply of electricity to a massive rig drilling for oil. They could be mass produced, potentially cutting the cost of drilling projects. The twist? The electricity on these floating power plants would come from a nuclear reactor."

"The White House has threatened to veto a Republican bill that would repeal a controversial Environmental Protection Agency clean water rule."

"In the Sonoran Desert, rainwater harvesting is finally going mainstream."

"An Energy Department report shows that while hydro can be finicky, it could be a bigger part of a carbon-reduced future."

"Conservationists on Tuesday called for new safeguards for gray whales and humpbacks after a record number of the federally protected mammals got entangled in fishing gear in coastal waters off California, Oregon and Washington."

"CUPERTINO -- The Lehigh Hanson cement plant, a longtime producer of Silicon Valley building materials but also a significant polluter, will pay $7.5 million as part of an agreement with the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency to settle charges it dumped millions of gallons of toxic wastewater into a nearby creek."

"Duke Energy, the largest electric utility in the US, has agreed to provide dozens of families in North Carolina with bottled water after state testing found private wells near sites where the company stores coal waste contaminated with potentially toxic chemicals."

The White House Tuesday issued veto threats for two GOP-sponsored 2016 appropriations bills likely to be taken up by the House this week. One is the Energy and Water appropriation, which the White House says underfunds clean energy jobs programs and contains "ideological riders" such as one that would thwart efforts to protect clean water.