Water & Oceans

"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.

"KIEV -- Emergency services were battling on Tuesday to prevent Ukraine's largest forest fire since 1992 from spreading towards the abandoned Chernobyl nuclear power plant, Prime Minister Arseny Yatseniuk said."

"The West Coast could see power brownouts in coming months as hydro power stations struggle with the four-year drought, and in the longer term climate change could cause additional problems for power plants, the U.S. energy secretary said on Monday."

"For the first time in more than 50 years, the federal government has recommended lowering the level of fluoride in drinking water."

"One of congressional Republicans' major attempts to regain a say over water resources projects while maintaining their self-imposed earmark ban may have hit a brick wall."