"FORT LAUDERDALE, Fla. -- With inviting beaches that run for miles along South Florida’s shores, it is easy to put sand into the same category as turbo air-conditioning and a decent mojito — something ever present and easily taken for granted."
"The blaze, now 134,000 acres, pushes into Yosemite National Park. Each day, what it does depends on the wind."
"California public health officials suggest limiting hexavalent chromium in drinking water to 10 parts per billion. Environmentalists say that's not nearly strict enough."
"Ronald Gertson usually plants about 3,000 acres of rice each year on his family farm in Wharton County, Texas. But because of emergency water regulations set in 2012 due to central Texas' painfully persistent drought, Gertson could plant about 40 percent of that land."
"WASHINGTON, DC -- A dam that has blocked Maryland’s Patapsco River for nearly 100 years will be removed shortly, utilizing a $3.57 million grant awarded by the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration’s Restoration Center to the nonprofit organization American Rivers."
"Activists condemn refusal to allow Arctic Sunrise icebreaker entry to Northern Sea Route as attempt to stifle peaceful protest."
"ROCKAWAY BEACH, Ore. -- From her front porch, Nancy Webster has a clear view of the hills just east of the coast highway, a western hemlock forest that's home to Rockaway Beach's water supply."
"Japan will raise the severity rating of a recent toxic water leak at the destroyed Fukushima nuclear plant to level 3, or 'serious incident', on an international scale for radiological releases, underlining the deepening sense of crisis at the site."
"The US Bureau of Reclamation announced the cut Friday, from Lake Powell, because of drought conditions. While the move involving the Colorado River will be hard for people to detect at the faucet, it carries symbolic importance."
"A new law meant to stabilize the federal government's money-losing flood-insurance program is starting to send rates sky high, prompting a growing backlash in coastal areas."
"The Biggert-Waters law, enacted in 2012 before superstorm Sandy hit the Eastern Seaboard, requires that government insurance premiums for the 5.6 million property owners in flood-prone regions be set at a level that better reflects the full risk of flooding. It was prompted by cumulative losses that had ballooned to $24 billion for the National Flood Insurance Program.
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