Water & Oceans

"New space mission will reveal global snowpack data"

"The swollen, churning, unrelenting river that's flooding towns from Minnesota to Louisiana this month is not Mark Twain's Mississippi River."

"Nearly every country in the world has agreed upon a legally binding framework to reduce the pollution from plastic waste except for the United States, U.N. environmental officials say."

"A more than five-year moratorium on leasing land in California for oil and gas development will be coming to an end with a May 9 Interior Department plan to open up about 725,000 acres across the state’s Central Coast and the Bay Area for drilling."

"The two top lawmakers on the House Financial Services Committee reached an agreement to extend the National Flood Insurance Program another four months, the 11th short-term extension of this financially troubled program in less than two years."

"A sweeping plan, carefully vetted on the Olympic Peninsula, would designate 126,000 acres of mountains and forests on the peninsula as wilderness and protect 19 streams under the federal Wild and Scenic Rivers Act."

"Only 37 percent of the world's longest rivers remain unimpeded and free-flowing from their source to where they empty, according to a study published today in Nature."

"With spring in full bloom, winter's last stores of snow are beginning to melt. As they do, they'll release much-needed fresh water into streams or the surrounding soil, fueling plant growth and replenishing drinking resources for communities."

"Steelhead trout numbers are growing on the Carmel River, a potential model for other dam removal projects nationwide".