water pollution

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EPA: 55% of US Streams, Rivers in Bad Shape

Survey finds just a fifth of waterways in good health

(Newser) - America's millions of miles of rivers and streams are in terrible shape, an extensive Environmental Protection Agency survey has found. After sampling close to 2,000 locations ranging from the Mississippi to tiny streams, the EPA found that just a fifth of rivers and streams are in good enough...

Air Pollution Is Going to Be China's Biggest Export

William Pesek: This 'geopolitical headache' has dangerous implications

(Newser) - Home to 16 of the 20 dirtiest cities on Earth, some of the world's filthiest waters, and deadly, particulate-filled air, China is growing so polluted that it is threatening both the Communist Party's leadership at home and the quality of life around the region, writes William Pesek in...

China's Growth Destroyed 80% of Its Coral Reefs

Alarming degradation found, 'window of opportunity' to save them closing

(Newser) - Thirty years of dynamic growth in China has lifted hundreds of millions out of poverty, but the environmental damage has been brutal. The latest evidence: More than 80% of its coral reefs are gone, thanks to development, overfishing, and pollution, reports AFP . A new report calls the damage "a...

Erie, Ontario Fare Worst in Study of Great Lakes

Lake Superior relatively clean in comparison

(Newser) - A three-year environmental study has produced a color-coded map of the Great Lakes, with Ontario and Erie clearly under the most stress from a hodgepodge of factors, reports the Detroit Free Press . (See the map here .) One big culprit with those two lakes, however, is fertilizer runoff from farms,...

Water Woes Prompt Exodus From Erin Brockovich Town

Quarter of population has sold homes

(Newser) - Seems Erin Brockovich's heroics weren't enough to end her town's toxin troubles . More than a decade after the eponymous Julia Roberts film about the battle over toxic groundwater, Hinkley, Calif., is in the midst of a new wave of water concerns. The crisis has prompted more than...

Ocean Expedition Finds 1M New Species

And reveals that there's a lot of plastic threatening them

(Newser) - Researchers will today present the fruits of a two-year 70,000-mile journey: up to 1 million previously undocumented species found living in the world's deep oceans, reports The Independent . The research ship Tara collected thousands of samples from depths of up to 2,000 meters, yielding more than 1....

Plastic in Pacific Has Grown 100-Fold Since 1970s

Study takes a look at the 'Great Pacific Garbage Patch'

(Newser) - Humanity has tossed a lot of plastic into the Pacific Ocean in the last 40 years. The level of small plastic pieces in the so-called "Great Pacific Garbage Patch" has increased 100-fold over that span, the Scripps Institution of Oceanography found in a new study. "We did not...

Global Warming&#39;s Cost on Oceans: $2T a Year by 2100
Global Warming's Cost on Oceans: $2T a Year by 2100
study says
Mar 21, 2012 10:31 AM CDT

Global Warming's Cost on Oceans: $2T a Year by 2100

SEI report estimates 4-degree rise over the century

(Newser) - Unless action is taken to protect them, damage to the world's oceans could reach $1.98 trillion annually by 2100, according to a study released today by the Stockholm Environment Institute. The principle culprit: climate change, which will cause rising sea levels, ocean acidification, marine pollution, species migrations, and...

Mining Company: Those 2-Headed Fish No Big Deal

Images of two-headed trout tucked into appendix of safety study

(Newser) - If you reel in your fishing line in southern Idaho to find a two-headed trout staring back, it's ... no big deal? The New York Times explains: The JR Simplot Company wants the federal government to allow higher levels of the mining byproduct selenium to appear in local waterways. The...

EPA Budget Cuts Could Imperil ... Beachgoers?

It plans to kill $10M in grants used to test tainted water

(Newser) - Swimmers, beware: You may want to stick with sand, not surf, this summer. The EPA is feeling the financial squeeze, and this week submitted a budget request that eliminates $10 million in grants that are used to test for polluted water and post warning signs. The EPA says the burden...

Chesapeake 'Dead Zone' Could Be Largest Ever

Marine life threatened in oxygen-starved portion of bay

(Newser) - High nutrient pollution levels have caused the Chesapeake Bay's underwater "dead zone" to expand unusually quickly this year: It covers a third of the bay and will likely become the bay's largest-ever area of oxygen-starved water. The dead zone, which sucks oxygen from deep waters and kills...

Hydrofracking's Ugly Secret: From Gas Wells, Bad Water
Hydrofracking's Ugly Secret: From Gas Wells, Bad Water
new york times expose
Feb 27, 2011 7:01 AM CST

Hydrofracking's Ugly Secret: From Gas Wells, Bad Water

Radiation more than 1K times legal limit not properly treated

(Newser) - It's called "hydrofracking"—injecting huge amounts of water, sand, and chemicals underground to break up rock formations and release natural gas—and it has an ugly secret. The technology allows energy companies to wring out small pockets of natural gas all across America—the number of gas wells...

Big Stink: Great Garbage Patch's Size Exaggerated

Think 1% the size of Texas, not twice as big

(Newser) - The "Great Pacific Garbage Patch" is often said to be twice the size of Texas—but that and other scary-sounding claims are “grossly exaggerated,” some scientists are now insisting. A new study shows the plastic waste patch is actually 200 times smaller than previously claimed when comparing...

Erin Brockovich Carcinogen Runs Rampant in US Tap Water

Industrial pollutant hexavalent chromium found in 31 of 35 cities surveyed

(Newser) - Those who thought Erin Brockovich was just a decent movie might want to check their drinking water: An environmental group has found the probable carcinogen featured in the film in the tap water of 31 of 35 US cities it analyzed—the first such study of hexavalent chromium to be...

Toxin Plagues Brockovich Town, Again

Cancer-causing material spreads through wells

(Newser) - A toxic plume of chromium continues to trouble the California desert town that Erin Brockovich put on the map—and the pollution is getting worse, reports the AP . High levels of the material, which can cause cancer, have spread through wells near Hinkley. “Because of the widespread nature of...

Underground Acid Lake Threatens Johannesburg

City needs millions to pump toxic water from mines

(Newser) - Johannesburg is frantically attempting to procure millions of dollars for a new pumping station, before a rising tide of toxic mine water seeps into the city’s streets. Abandoned mine shafts in and around the city have filled up with ground water, which oxidizes with the metals within the mines,...

EPA to Amish: Put a Lid on Your Cow Poop

Feds worried Amish polluting Chesapeake with manure runoff

(Newser) - Think the Amish, with their simple, low-consumption ways, are paragons of environment-friendly living? Think again. The EPA plans to crack down on the Amish, because their cows are generating tons of manure that wash into the Chesapeake Bay, the New York Times reports. Lancaster County generates about 61 million pounds...

Oil Spill Sends Foul Smell to New Orleans

Strong winds complicating cleanup efforts

(Newser) - The oil spill oozing ashore in Louisiana is making life miserable for residents of New Orleans because of the stench. Complaints are jamming city phone lines, and officials say they can only assume the odor is coming from the Gulf, reports the Times-Picayune . Andrew Sullivan, meanwhile, posts this from a...

Pollution Turns Male Fish Into Mutant Mommies
Pollution Turns Male Fish
Into Mutant Mommies
IN CASE YOU MISSED IT
Apr 25, 2010 9:51 AM CDT

Pollution Turns Male Fish Into Mutant Mommies

Potomac river full of intersexed fish

(Newser) - The Potomac river has become so polluted that most of its male fish have mutated and developed female traits—like carrying eggs in their testes. More than 80% of the river's male bass have some female characteristic, the Potomac Conservancy tells the Guardian , blaming drugs and other chemicals that...

Plastic Garbage Patch Found in Atlantic
 Plastic Garbage Patch 
 Found in Atlantic 
in case you missed it
Apr 18, 2010 3:10 PM CDT

Plastic Garbage Patch Found in Atlantic

Covers thousands of square miles, endangers fish

(Newser) - If you’re planning on taking a cruise, hopefully your ship won’t travel through the “great Atlantic garbage patch” that covers thousands of square miles between Bermuda and the Azores islands. The plastic debris is so small that some pieces are almost invisible, and the floating trash heap—...

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