Water & Oceans

"U.S. Commerce Department Secretary Wilbur Ross sent a report to the White House on Wednesday containing recommendations on whether to change the boundaries of 11 marine sanctuaries to allow more oil and gas drilling, but the report was not made public."

"The Environmental Protection Agency’s revised rule on arsenic contamination in drinking water has resulted in fewer lung, bladder and skin cancers."

"DAMARISCOTTA, Me. — Alice Kelley stood on the bank of a tidal river, next to a grassy bluff dotted with apple trees. This is not just a scenic spot: Hidden beneath the grass is a massive pile of oyster shells left by Native Americans. And hidden among those shells are rich, detailed stories thousands of years old."

Climate change has undermined the risk calculations for dams. President Obama had a program to make dams more resilient, but President Trump plans to do away with this key dam safety program.

"OROVILLE, Calif. — The costs to repair the nation's tallest dam after a nearly catastrophic failure of the spillways will top $500 million, nearly double the original estimate of $275 million, a California Department of Water Resources official said Thursday."

"An oil spill in the Gulf of Mexico last week may be the largest in the U.S. since the 2010 blowout at BP Plc’s Macondo well that sank the Deepwater Horizon rig and killed 11 people."

"Major dam and irrigation projects are drying up the wetlands that sustain life in the arid Sahel region of Africa. The result has been a wave of environmental refugees, as thousands of people flee, many on boats to Europe."

"One of the most powerful storms ever recorded in the northeastern Atlantic bore down on Ireland on Monday, unleashing strong winds and rain that killed at least three people and visited destruction on an island with little experience of such powerful storms."

"President Donald Trump’s administration has approved a company’s plan to build a water pipeline to carry billions of gallons from the Mojave Desert to California cities."