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"A devastating Texas drought that has browned city lawns and caused more than $5 billion in damages to the state's farmers and ranchers could continue for another nine years, a state forecaster said on Thursday."

"'It is possible that we could be looking at another of these multiyear droughts like we saw in the 1950s, and like the tree rings have shown that the state has experienced over the last several centuries,' State Climatologist John Nielson-Gammon told Reuters.

"EPA finds trichloroethylene causes kidney and liver cancer, lymphoma and other health problems. The decision could raise the cost of cleanups nationwide, including in the San Fernando and San Gabriel valleys."

"SANTA FE -- The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency has approved a plan for the clean up of the largest and highest priority abandoned uranium mine on the Navajo Nation."

"ALBUQUERQUE -- Acquisition of 570 acres to establish a national wildlife refuge along the Rio Grande in Albuquerque has been approved, Secretary of the Interior Ken Salazar announced today in Albuquerque."

"SACRAMENTO -- The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency today ordered a $60 million cleanup of groundwater polluted with rocket fuel at the Aerojet Superfund Site in Sacramento County, the latest phase of a long-term decontamination project at the site."

"The U.S. Department of Energy said on Wednesday it will provide a Texas clean coal plant with $450 million in funding months after a power company shelved plans for a similar plant in West Virginia."

"An ongoing federal investigation into last year's massive rig explosion and oil spill in the Gulf of Mexico has found that a particularly lax U.S. regulatory regime was a significant factor in the events leading up to the disaster."