Pollution

"NEW ORLEANS -- Scientists in Michigan and Louisiana are predicting a big summer 'dead zone' in the Gulf of Mexico unless a tropical storm hits the area shortly before or during the annual measurement. In the Chesapeake Bay, scientists expect a smaller-than-average area where there's too little oxygen to support fish, shellfish and other aquatic life."

"DAMASCUS, Va. -- This is a heck of a bad time for the hellbender."

"None of the companies operating in Canada's tar sands have met a commitment to clean up the vast and expanding sprawl of toxic waste ponds, an official report has found."

"HONG KONG -- China’s cabinet has adopted 10 measures to improve air quality in the latest move aimed at responding to the dense smog that has repeatedly enveloped Beijing and other major Chinese cities in recent years."

"The U.S. Justice Department filed a joint lawsuit with Arkansas on Thursday against oil producer Exxon Mobil Corp over the pipeline spill in March of thousands of barrels of heavy Canadian crude oil in a suburban neighborhood."

"Trouble in a major Delaware City Refinery unit sent dark smoke billowing from a stack at the plant early [Tuesday] morning, triggering calls to regulators from nearby residents."

"Former TransCanada Corp. employee Evan Vokes' impassioned testimony before a Canadian Senate committee last week painted 'a very, very bleak picture of the pipeline industry in Canada, and probably by extension, the States,' according to Sen. Betty Unger."

"LULING, Texas -- Amid the dry weeds on a 470-acre ranch here, a rusted head of steel pokes up, a vestige of an oil well abandoned decades ago. Across the field stand two huge, old wooden oil tanks, one of them tilting like a smokestack on the Titanic."

"BP is ending its cleanup of the massive Deepwater Horizon oil spill in three Gulf Coast states this month, leaving Louisiana as the only state with ongoing cleanup linked to the company's Deepwater Horizon Response effort. Reports of oil sightings in Alabama, Mississippi, and Florida will soon be the U.S. Coast Guard's responsibility to investigate."