Water & Oceans

"The United States’ tsunami system is in need of a major update, with ongoing problems that include outdated software, delayed alerts and poor communication to the public, according to a panel of tsunami experts. Its recent report sees “an urgent need for action” and advises the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) to overhaul aspects of the system to fix these and other pressing issues."

"The world has a “once in a lifetime” chance to protect the high seas from exploitation, warned scientists and environmentalists, as negotiators meet at the UN headquarters in New York this week to hammer out a new treaty on the oceans."

"With the United States Supreme Court declining to hear the case, a protracted legal battle between two Indigenous communities has nowhere to go."

"A sprawling $1.5 trillion fiscal 2022 spending deal is awash in cash for water and natural resources projects, including a number of Republican proposals to gird coastal communities against the effects of climate change. The omnibus package is the first in years to contain congressionally directed spending, also known as earmarks."

"Nyla Olsen’s eyes moisten with rage as she recalls the day in early October when a surge of putrid water rolled out of the Dominguez Channel and turned life in Leeward Bay Marina into “a horror movie.”"

"The Defense Department will permanently shut down the Navy’s massive fuel tank facility in Hawaii that leaked petroleum into Pearl Harbor’s tap water, and will remove all the fuel, the Pentagon said Monday."

"It’s peak fishing season along Peru’s coastline, and on a day like this one, Robert Roberto Merino Leon would have set out before dawn to the waters that sustained his family for the last two decades."

"On the eve of the Selma Jubilee, commemorating the “Bloody Sunday” march that helped catalyze support for the Voting Rights Act 57 years ago, the head of the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency toured Alabama’s Black Belt to witness a different kind of struggle: the battle for clean water and basic sanitation."

"NEW ORLEANS — Hurricane Harvey dumped more than 50 inches of rain on parts of the Texas coast in 2017. Then in 2020, ferocious winds from Hurricane Laura destroyed homes across coastal Louisiana. Hurricane Ida hit in 2021, leaving the entire city of New Orleans without power for days.

"After a series of storms drenched the region with a record 9.4 inches of rain in December, the Los Angeles River became a roiling, violent torrent in its concrete channel, before finally spilling into the Pacific Ocean."