Water & Oceans

"Hurricane Maria was the rainiest storm known to have hit Puerto Rico, and climate change is partly to blame, according to a new study."

"An unlikely advocate seems to be around every bend of the Colorado River these days: the Walton Family Foundation. The $3.65 billion organization launched by Walmart founder Sam Walton has become ubiquitous in the seven-state basin that provides water to 40 million people, dishing out $100 million in grants in the last five years alone."

"Multiple coal ash sites in Illinois sit within or adjacent to flood plains, according to environmental watchdogs."

"With countless acres of flat, fertile farmland traversed by major rivers, Illinois is familiar with major flooding.

Just as towns were built along rivers in decades past, so were coal-fired power plants that relied on the water for cooling and transporting coal. Now, those plants — some defunct and some still operating — are also repositories for toxic coal ash that could pose a risk of contamination when floodwaters rise.

"South Carolina’s Republican-majority Senate advanced a measure on Wednesday that would require the state to block new infrastructure to transport or process offshore oil and gas as state lawmakers fear the Interior Department will open the Atlantic coast to offshore drilling."

"It's not over yet. The Imperial Irrigation District has sued to halt a sweeping Colorado River drought plan that was signed in to law by President Trump on Tuesday. Officials with the sprawling, sparsely populated rural water district in southeastern California say the Salton Sea was wrongly left out of the plan."

"Environmental group American Rivers released its annual list of the USA's top 10 "most endangered" rivers Tuesday, and this year, the top "dishonor" goes to New Mexico’s Gila River. The river got the top spot due to the grave threat that climate change and a proposed diversion project pose to New Mexico’s last free-flowing river."

"EPA won't regulate any pollution to surface waters that passes through groundwater."

"Attorneys general from 14 states and the District of Columbia on Tuesday vehemently opposed the Trump administration’s proposal to roll back a regulation known as Waters of the United States, a move they said would end federal oversight of 15 percent of streams and more than half of the nation’s wetlands."

"A rare baleen whale found in the Gulf of Mexico has gained protection under the Endangered Species Act. The Gulf of Mexico Bryde’s whale is a subspecies of the Bryde’s whale and one of the most endangered whales in the world, according to the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration."

"State officials will challenge a court ruling that revoked the water permit for a silver and copper mine proposed beneath a Montana wilderness area, a Department of Natural Resources and Conservation spokesman said Monday."