Water & Oceans

"PORTLAND, Ore. -- Who bears responsibility for an impoverished child with a mouth full of rotting teeth? Parents? Soda companies? The ingrained inequities of capitalism? Pick your villain, or champion. They are all on display here as the largest city in the nation with no commitment to fluoridating its water supply -- and one of the most politically liberal cultures anywhere -- has waded into a new debate about whether to change its ways and its water."

"Aging boomers pop more pills to keep fit. Farmers feed more antibiotics and hormones to fatten livestock. Adults and children use exotic shampoos and conditioners to make their hair shiny. Most of these drugs and personal-care chemicals wind up down the drain, into sewage, land-applied sludge, reclaimed water and ultimately the Indian River Lagoon, St. Johns River and other waters."

"Canada and the United States have updated a decades-old agreement to protect the Great Lakes, adding new commitments to protect aquatic habitats, curb invasive species and help coastal communities adapt to climate change."

"Long-awaited dredging will begin this month in Waukegan Harbor to remove soil contaminated with hazardous substances at a Superfund site once described as the 'world's worst PCB mess,' officials announced Thursday at the Waukegan Yacht Club."

"CLEVELAND -- The mystery deepens, as several agencies not only look for the reason why tens of thousands of fish washed up dead along the northern shores of Lake Erie, but seagulls as well."

"Bottom trawling by fishermen, long believed to harm marine life, may be even more damaging than previously thought, affecting the seabed as seriously as intensive ploughing of farmland erodes the soil, according to a new Spanish study."

Crews from the DC-area Washington Suburban Sanitary Commission spend a lot of time checking the sewer pipes outside restaurants. The grease that builds up in the network of sewer pipes causes some 40 percent of sewer overflows in the U.S.

"Residents in almost all parts of the United States live on lands that contain minor to substantial concentrations of radionuclides of one type or another.1 These substances often make their way into tap water, leading to exposures by ingestion, inhalation, or dermal pathways during showering or other contact with the water.

"PORTLAND, Ore. — About 15 years ago, this environmentally conscious state with a fir tree on its license plates began pushing the idea of making renewable energy from the ocean waves that bob and swell on the Pacific horizon. But then one of the first test-buoy generators, launched with great fanfare, promptly sank. It was not a good start."