Water & Oceans

"A highly flammable byproduct flowed from oil tankers into an area stormwater system for at least a year before state regulators inspected the problem."

"A long-running battle over an oyster farm at Pt. Reyes National Seashore may be winding down. The National Park Service says a settlement agreement would, if approved by a federal court, would require the Drake Bay Oyster Company to cease operations by the end of the year."

"Forget Nessie: there's another insidious creature living in the waters of Scotland."

"Loren 'Buzz' Kiskadden first noticed a water problem at his house trailer in rural Amwell Township, Washington County, while using a hose to fill a wading pool for his grandchildren in June 2011. 'A gray sludge was filing up the bottom of the pool. It was just nasty,' said Mr. Kiskadden, 55, in testimony before the state Environmental Hearing Board last week in Pittsburgh. 'I shut the water off and told the kids not to get in it.'"

"An environmental assessment of the joint Chattanooga-Hamilton County firing range on Moccasin Bend indicates that the nearly 40 years of spent bullets at the site may be causing lead-laden surface water to flow into the Tennessee River."

"Senators Bill Nelson (D-FL) and Sheldon Whitehouse (D-R.I.) sounded the alarm Thursday in Miami Beach about the potentially crippling effects that climate change and rising sea levels could have on the city, accusing skeptics of 'avoiding reality.'"

"It’s early morning in southeast Alaska. Stars have yet to fade from the night sky. A group of scientists sets out in search of a different kind of star. Sea stars, commonly known as starfish, have been vanishing from North America’s Pacific shoreline."

The Chesapeake Bay region would reap an additional $22.5 billion a year from improved hurricane protection, crab and fish production and climate stability if the Obama administration's contested plan to clean up the watershed proceeds, an environmental group says."

"Northwest tribes urge US and Canada to revise Columbia River Treaty to allow safe passage for salmon crossing dams."