Northwest (OR WA)

"At homes and day care centers throughout Central Washington, children play in yards contaminated with lead and arsenic."

"Retiring and replacing Montana’s Colstrip Generating Station, an important supplier to Puget Sound Energy, could be distressingly complicated and costly, public officials and energy executives are finding."

"One of the country’s fastest-growing cities suddenly has a long-term water problem."

"The U.S. government has failed to adequately safeguard crews involved in the decades-long cleanup of the Hanford Nuclear Reservation in Washington state, leaving workers sickened by exposure to toxic vapors, the state said in a lawsuit filed on Wednesday."

"Against the backdrop of rocky bluffs, a pod of orcas repeatedly jumped out of the emerald waters of the Puget Sound one recent sunny afternoon before splashing their massive black-and-white bodies back into the water."

"Crews battling the largest array of wildfires in Washington state history gained more ground against the flames on Tuesday, as property assessors reported the deadly conflagration had destroyed more than 170 homes and dozens of other structures."

"As drought-fueled wildfires rage across the West, farm communities on the frontlines are feeling the heat."

"U.S. crews battling a flurry of wildfires raging unchecked across the Pacific Northwest contended with high winds on Thursday, a day after three firefighters were killed and four others were injured in Washington state."

"Three firefighters in Washington state were killed and four injured while battling a wildfire threatening the town of Twisp, officials said on Wednesday, as more than a dozen major blazes burned in parched Western U.S. states."