Water & Oceans

"Decades of shortsighted decisions by industry and government have put the Mississippi River’s future at risk, and degradation at its southern Louisiana delta is contributing to 'the greatest land loss on the planet,' a five-state environmental coalition warned Wednesday."

"Pennsylvania is falling far short of goals for reducing agricultural water pollutants and urban and suburban runoff that are damaging the ecological health of the Chesapeake Bay, according to a new report by the Chesapeake Bay Foundation and Choose Clean Water Coalition."

"A massive rainstorm in July 2010 turned city streets into rushing rivers and infamously created a sinkhole so big at N. Oakland and E. North avenues that it swallowed a Cadillac Escalade."

"Illinois Gov. Pat Quinn signed legislation Sunday banning the manufacture and sale of personal care products containing plastic microbeads."

"RALEIGH, N.C. — Environmental and wildlife officials in North Carolina and Virginia signed an agreement with Duke Energy Monday for the cleanup of toxic coal ash from the Dan River, which flows through the two states."

"Design problems with a blowout prevention system contributed to the 2010 Deepwater Horizon oil rig disaster, and the same equipment is still commonly used in drilling four years after the Gulf of Mexico oil spill, according to a report issued by the federal Chemical Safety and Hazard Investigation Board."

"Citing what he said was 'extensive scientific evidence,' a federal judge has ruled for the first time that conductivity pollution from mountaintop removal mining operations is damaging streams in Southern West Virginia."

"The Sierra Nevada is rising. Drought-stricken farmers in the Central Valley are pumping more and more water from the valley's huge aquifer beneath them, and the drainage is triggering unexpected earthquakes along the San Andreas Fault, scientists have discovered."

"Federal safety regulators warned on Thursday that another disastrous offshore oil well blowout could happen despite regulatory improvements in the four years since a BP well explosion in the Gulf of Mexico killed 11 workers and dumped millions of gallons of oil into the sea."