Water & Oceans

"Although contaminants buried in the sediments of Green Bay may be out of sight, they should not be out mind, according to research published last month in the Journal of Great Lakes Research. Two invasive species – the quagga mussel and round goby – can allow a group of toxic chemicals deposited more than 45 years ago to reenter the food web, passing them to predatory fish and possibly people."

"OVER THE GULF OF MEXICO — A blanket of fog lifts, exposing a band of rainbow sheen that stretches for miles off the coast of Louisiana. From the vantage point of an airplane, it's easy to see gas bubbles in the slick that mark the spot where an oil platform toppled during a 2004 hurricane, triggering what might be the longest-running commercial oil spill ever to pollute the Gulf of Mexico."

"In the five years since the Deepwater Horizon accident, the oil and gas industry has not retreated to safety. Instead, it has expanded its technological horizon in ways that make it harder to foresee the complex interactions between drilling technologies, inevitable human errors and the ultra-deepwater environment."

"Two Tennessee environmental groups claim toxic pollution from a coal-burning power plant is seeping into the Cumberland River and state regulators are not doing enough to stop it."

"California's 3-year-old drought has thrust seawater desalination into the spotlight as San Diego County, Santa Barbara and other cities push ahead with treatment plants that will soon turn the Pacific Ocean into a source of drinking water."

"Cities and water districts serving 19 million people in Southern California face smaller water deliveries this summer under a plan approved by the region's water wholesaler in response to ongoing dry conditions."

"The Obama administration will release a new rule as soon as Monday that aims to prevent offshore drilling disasters like the major Gulf of Mexico oil spill five years ago."

"FABENS, Tex. — On maps, the mighty Rio Grande meanders 1,900 miles, from southern Colorado’s San Juan Mountains to the Gulf of Mexico. But on the ground, farms and cities drink all but a trickle before it reaches the canal that irrigates Bobby Skov’s farm outside El Paso, hundreds of miles from the gulf."

"Ocean acidification triggered by massive volcanic eruptions helped cause the worst mass extinction in the history of life on Earth, according to a new study."

"For 6 million years, the Colorado River has gathered fresh snowmelt high in the Rocky Mountains and carried that water south for 1,450 miles (2,300 kilometers). It travels over falls and rapids, through deserts and canyons, all the while providing water to 35 million people and thousands of acres of farmland. But today the river is at risk."