Water & Oceans

"A swirling 'soup' of tiny pieces of plastic has been found in the Atlantic Ocean, and something similar may be present in other ocean areas as well."

"Environmentalists praised Senate lawmakers on Thursday for approving legislation that more clearly defines which bodies of water are subject to federal regulation."

"Exxon Mobil Corp. must pay victims of the 1989 Exxon Valdez oil spill $480 million more in interest on their delayed punitive damages awards as well as cover $70 million in the company's own appeals costs, a federal appeals court ruled Monday."

"The US and Canada have agreed to update the 37-year-old Great Lakes Water Quality Agreement that commits both countries 'to restore and maintain the chemical, physical, and biological integrity of the waters of the Great Lakes Basin Ecosystem.'"

"Nearly a month after the onset of a navigational dredging project in the Saginaw River that some worry will send dioxin-contaminated sediments downstream toward the intakes for Bay City’s water supply, EPA officials responded to citizen concerns by announcing it would not test the water for the toxin."

"The Army Corps of Engineers is on a mission to chop down every tree in the country that grows within 15 feet of a levee — including oaks and sycamores in Louisiana, willows in Oklahoma and cottonwoods in California."

Witnesses at a Senate Hearing testified about many ways in which the world's oceans are already being affected by global warming.

"The world's seas are filled with too much garbage and too few fish with flimsy plastic bags and government subsidies bearing much of the blame, activists and trade officials said Monday on the first U.N. World Oceans Day."

"Activists restore blighted San Francisco Bay Area creeks -- and impoverished communities."