Latest News
U.S. Groundwater Consumption Accelerating
RESTON, Virginia, May 23, 2013 (ENS) – Aquifers across the United States are being drawn down at an increasing pace, finds a new study released today by the U.S. Geological Survey. […]
Water
Air/Climate
Superstorm Sandy Dumped 11 Billion Gallons of Sewage
NEW YORK, New York, April 30, 2013 (ENS) – Six months after Superstorm Sandy struck the U.S. Atlantic coast, data from the eight hardest hit states shows that 11 billion gallons of untreated and partially treated sewage flowed into waterways and city streets, reports Climate Central, an organization of scientists and journalists. […]
Latest News
Black Warrior Riverkeeper Sues to Stop Polluting Coal Mine
BIRMINGHAM, Alabama, April 25, 2013 (ENS) – Black Warrior Riverkeeper filed a citizen lawsuit under the Clean Water Act and Surface Mining Control and Reclamation Act for 758 water pollution violations at the Shannon Mine. […]
Energy
Court Orders EPA to Impose Power Plant Water Pollution Rule
WASHINGTON, DC, April 23, 2013 (ENS) – The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency must meet a court-ordered deadline to issue regulations that clean up power plant water pollution, the U.S. Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia ruled today. […]
Latest News
New York’s First Desalination Plant Raises Radiation Fears
NEW YORK, New York, April 18, 2013 (ENS) – Desalination plants are typically built in dry places. But along New York’s Hudson River a different story is unfolding. A desalination plant has been proposed by United Water New York, a private company, just 3.5 miles from an aging nuclear power generating station. […]
At Risk
Colorado River Tops America’s Most Endangered Rivers List
WASHINGTON, DC, April 17, 2013 (ENS) – “Dammed, diverted, and drained … to a trickle” and facing another drought this summer, the Colorado River tops American Rivers’ annual list of America’s Most Endangered Rivers, the nonprofit river advocacy group announced today. […]
Latest News
Over Half U.S. River and Stream Miles in Poor Condition
WASHINGTON, DC, March 26, 2013 (ENS) – Fifty-five percent of U.S. rivers and streams are in poor condition for aquatic life, finds the first comprehensive survey of the nation’s stream and river health, released today by the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency. […]
Latest News
International Cooperation Key to World Water Day 2013
NEW YORK, New York, March 22, 2013 (ENS) – “Water is central to the wellbeing of people and the planet,” UN Secretary General Ban Ki moon said in his video message for the International Year of Water Cooperation 2013. “We must work together to protect and carefully manage this fragile, finite resource.” […]
Energy
Civil Engineers Raise U.S. Infrastructure Grade to D+
WASHINGTON, DC, March 20, 2013 (ENS) – Over the past four years, the state of America’s infrastructure has improved from a grade of D to D+ but a spending shortfall of $1.6 trillion is anticipated by 2020, the American Society of Civil Engineers warns in its new report card. […]
Air/Climate
Sequester Cuts Hit Clean Air, Water, Energy, National Parks
WASHINGTON, DC, March 1, 2013 (ENS) – Air and water quality, national parks and surrounding communities, and clean energy development will be hard hit by across-the-board spending cuts in the federal budget that took effect today. […]
Land Use/Forests
Nevada Groups Challenge Molybdenum Mine Over Public Water Rights
RENO, Nevada, February 28, 2013 (ENS) – Two Nevada environmental groups have filed legal action contesting U.S. government approval of the Mount Hope molybdenum mine, saying it would remove an entire mountain and replace it with a giant open pit mine. […]
Latest News
New Jersey Water Officials Charged With Poisoning Drinking Water
TRENTON, New Jersey, February 13, 2013 (ENS) – Two East Orange Water Commission officials have been charged with conspiring to close contaminated wells before water tests, falsely reporting low levels of a contaminant in drinking water, then opening the wells, allowing the chemical back into the water supply. […]
Latest News
U.S. & Saudi Engineers Turn Gas Well Water to Drinking Water
CAMBRIDGE, Massachusetts, February 5, 2013 (ENS) – Researchers at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, MIT, have filed for patents on a new water purification system that turns the produced water from natural gas wells into drinking water. […]
Latest News
U.S. Places San Francisco Bay-Estuary Under Treaty Protection
SAN FRANCISCO, California, January 30, 2013 (ENS) – The United States has named the San Francisco Bay and Estuary as its 35th Wetland of International Importance under the Ramsar Convention, effective on World Wetlands Day, February 2. […]
Latest News
Supreme Court Ruling Leaves Los Angeles With Polluted Stormwater
WASHINGTON, DC, January 9, 2013 (ENS) – The U.S. Supreme Court has ruled that the Los Angeles County’s Flood Control District can side-step responsibility for the high levels of polluted stormwater found in the Los Angeles and San Gabriel Rivers, but only temporarily. […]
Air/Climate
U.S. EPA Administrator Lisa Jackson Resigns
WASHINGTON, DC, December 27, 2012 (ENS) – Lisa Jackson, who has headed the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency during President Obama’s first term in office, is leaving the Cabinet after four years in which she regulated pollution over the objections of Congressional Republicans and industry. […]
Land Use/Forests
Explosives Superfund Site Cleanup Settled for $50 Million
WASHINGTON, DC, December 5, 2012 (ENS) – A Superfund site contaminated by decades of fireworks manufacturing will be cleaned under two settlements reached today by the U.S. government with companies and local governments. […]
Latest News
Small Oil Leak Points Up Big Danube River Issues
REGENSBURG, Germany, November 27, 2012 (ENS) – Oil leaking from a capsized ship in the town of Ruse on the Danube River could have serious consequences, environmentalists are warning as an important Danube conference opened today in Germany. […]
Latest News
‘Superbug’ MRSA Found in U.S. Wastewater Treatment Plants
COLLEGE PARK, Maryland, November 14, 2012 (ENS) – The “superbug” methicillin-resistant Staphylococcus aureus, or MRSA, is prevalent at several U.S. wastewater treatment plants, scientists have found in the first study to investigate U.S. wastewater as an environmental reservoir of the bacteria. […]
Energy
Top U.S. Court Rejects Chevron’s Appeal in Ecuador Pollution Case
WASHINGTON, DC, October 9, 2012 (ENS) – Chevron today lost its U.S. Supreme Court bid to block global enforcement of a $19 billion judgment by an Ecuadorean court in a long legal fight over contamination of the Amazon rainforest. […]