Water & Oceans

"Just south of Johnson Creek sits an abandoned landfill that time, and the Oregon Department of Environmental Quality, forgot."

"Environmentalists sued the Obama administration on Thursday seeking new federal water-quality standards designed to protect marine life against the corrosive effects of carbon emissions absorbed into the ocean from the burning of fossil fuels."

"Thirteen months after an Environmental Protection Agency mistake sent millions of gallons of bright orange wastewater into a Colorado river, the agency has declared the Gold King Mine and 47 other locations in the region Superfund sites, Colorado Public Radio reports."

"Much of the heat of global warming has been absorbed by the sea, with a steep cost to marine life, ecosystems and the people that depend on them."

"The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency will order wastewater disposal wells shut near the epicenter of a 5.6 magnitude earthquake that struck on Saturday around Pawnee, Oklahoma, local media reported on Tuesday."

"A federal judge on Tuesday blocked the U.S. Bureau of Land Management from opening more than 1 million acres in Central California to oil drilling because the agency did not properly explore the potential dangers of fracking."

"The United States lifted protection for most humpback whales around the globe on Tuesday, including some in American waters, based on evidence they have made a strong comeback since commercial whaling drove them to near extinction."

"Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell took the first procedural step on Tuesday evening towards advancing a $9.4 billion waterways bill that contains emergency funding for Flint, Mich."

"Hermine is expected to begin weakening as it churns hundreds of miles offshore in the Atlantic Ocean, but forecasters warn it could continue to impact areas from New York to southern New England with pounding waves, coastal flooding and beach erosion before it moves out to sea."

"Authorities in the southern portion of Mexico's Baja California peninsula ordered schools closed and set up emergency shelters as Hurricane Newton gained strength while bearing down on the twin resorts of Los Cabos for a predicted arrival Tuesday morning."