Water & Oceans

Recent levee failures in Colorado and Missouri have provided still more examples of the fragility of thousands of miles of US levees.

According to a recent GAO report, the nation's federally subsidized crop insurance program might not be ready to manage increasing risks to US crops due to climate change.

As spring begins to turn into summer, at least 28 states are suffering from some degree of drought. Many of these areas have already withered under multiple years of bone-dry conditions.

It's crunch time for developing the successor to the 2002 US Farm Bill, set to expire Sept. 30, 2007. Many of the ingredients that may be blended into the 2007 Farm Bill are now becoming public.

Hideous, insidious rock snot smothers US waterways.

NRC takes closer look at desalination.

A new ruling by a New Mexico state district judge requires that a report on groundwater pollution from a mixed-waste landfill at Sandia National Laboratories be made public.

An extensive report on the growing threats posed to the Colorado River system by climate change, drought, and increasing population is scheduled to be released Feb. 21, 2007.

Steps necessary to improve security at tens of thousands of US drinking water, wastewater, and stormwater facilities have become a little more definitive with the release Dec. 14, 2006, of a draft set of voluntary guidelines. (

The Gulf waters off of Louisiana aren't the only US area burdened by a "dead zone." There are similar, smaller areas with short- or long-term oxygen depletion off the shores of 20 states, as well as Canada and Mexico.