"Hydrologist Maureen Gutsch trudged through the mud and slush to confirm a grim picture: Colorado just had its worst snowpack since statewide recordkeeping began in 1941."
"The Environmental Protection Agency proposed Thursday to include microplastics and pharmaceuticals on a list of contaminants in drinking water for the first time, a step that could lead to new limits on those substances for water utilities."
"When pollution gets bad enough in the rivers supplying Iowa’s largest city with drinking water, it costs Des Moines around $16,000 a day to run a special system to filter out dangerous nitrates. It’s a fact of life in the agriculture-dependent state — and climate change is making the water quality problem even worse."
"The administration moved to block endangered species protections in the Gulf of Mexico, but few see a real threat to oil production."
"A long-term project to remove or modify dams may clear the way for endangered wild Atlantic salmon to swim freely up to the Sandy River. But it faces opposition from business and lawmakers."
"Thousands of dead fish are washing ashore and people are falling ill too, as officials investigate possible sources of contamination."
"Several high-ranking Trump officials that make up the so-called “God Squad” voted on Tuesday to quash longstanding Endangered Species Act regulations in the Gulf of Mexico, exempting all oil and gas drilling. It’s an outcome environmentalists fear could spell doom for the critically endangered Rice’s whale, a species that only exists in the Gulf and has just 50 whales left in existence."
"Plans for a wall in Big Bend National Park prompted public protests and behind-the-scenes lobbying to sway the Trump administration to stop."
"It’s been a decade since farmers began to learn that contamination from PFAS unknowingly spread across their property could devastate their lives and livelihoods, but Maine is showing it’s possible to keep farms going despite the problems caused by the “forever chemicals.”
"The Iran war has unleashed a toxic mix of chemicals, heavy metals and other pollutants that threaten everything from agriculture to drinking water to people’s health — and will leave behind environmental damage and health risks that could persist for decades, experts said."
