water pollution

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Supreme Court Limits EPA Power on Water Pollution

Majority sides with couple who sought to build home on wetlands in Idaho

(Newser) - The Supreme Court on Thursday made it harder for the federal government to police water pollution in a decision that strips protections from wetlands that are isolated from larger bodies of water, per the AP . It's the second decision in as many years in which a conservative majority of...

That's an Appliance Floating in This River

Sections of one Balkan river have become a floating garbage dump

(Newser) - Tons of waste dumped in poorly regulated riverside landfills or directly into waterways that flow across three countries end up turning a section of one Balkan river into a floating garbage dump. Bosnia's Drina River runs 215 miles from the mountains of northwestern Montenegro through Serbia and Bosnia. Some...

Ex-Michigan Governor Catches Big Break in Flint Case

Judge dismisses criminal charges against Rick Snyder, 8 years after water issues began

(Newser) - A judge dismissed criminal charges against former Michigan Gov. Rick Snyder in the Flint water crisis, months after the state Supreme Court said indictments returned by a one-person grand jury were invalid. Snyder, a Republican who left office in 2019, had been charged with two misdemeanor counts of willful neglect...

This Whale Sucks In an Astounding Amount of Microplastics

Blue whales, as well as other baleens, are ingesting millions of the tiny particles daily

(Newser) - Baleen whales —which include blue whales and humpbacks—are a type of whale that uses special filters instead of teeth to collect and eat small prey like krill and fish. Now, in a research first, scientists examining the consumption habits of these marine mammals have found they're...

Offered Water From Polluted River, He Drank It 'Without Hesitation'

Punjab CM Bhagwant Mann ends up in hospital, though party denies it was from the water

(Newser) - In this week's "Regrets, I've Had a Few" files, an Indian politician trying to show how clean the waters of a local river were ended up in the hospital, though his party insists the two events aren't related. On Sunday, Bhagwant Mann, the chief minister of...

Not the Loch Ness Monster in Detroit, but Something Else Amazing

What may be first river otter seen in 100 years in Detroit River shows water pollution is decreasing

(Newser) - "As a PhD student in marine ecology, Eric Ste Marie knew what he saw was rare." That sighting in the Detroit River last month, as described by WXYZ , is now making headlines, and it may be the first of its kind in a century. Ste Marie, a 27-year-old...

Awful-Smelling Foam Is Invading This City

Toxic foam from polluted river has become the bane of Mosquera, a suburb of Bogota, Colombia

(Newser) - Playing in foam is usually fun—think bubble baths when you were a kid. But in the streets of one suburb of Bogota, Colombia, residents flee toxic clouds of the stuff wafting over from a nearby polluted river, bringing an unpleasant odor and suspected to be the cause of a...

Amid War in Ukraine, a New Looming Concern

Contamination of nation's water, air, and soil could take years to assess and clean up, experts warn

(Newser) - Death and destruction isn't all that's been left in the wake of Russia's unrelenting war on Ukraine. Contamination of the nation's water, air, and soil are also now a concern, and it's an issue that could take years to remedy. Fires, explosions, building collapses, and...

Septic Systems, Climate Change, and a Looming Eco-Catastrophe

Millions of Americans can no longer take that flush for granted

(Newser) - For millions of American homeowners and their communities, the problem with septic systems is not just another seemingly distant threat due to climate change. It’s all happening right now; and, yes, it is projected to get worse. Per a detailed report by the Washington Post, rising sea and groundwater...

Blame for World's Plastic 'Deluge' Lands Squarely on US

We're the biggest contributor to the waste problem, per new NAS analysis commissioned by Congress

(Newser) - There's a "deluge" of plastic mucking up the Earth's oceans, with the United States serving as the biggest contributor to it. That's according to a new National Academy of Sciences report ordered by Congress that's imploring the US to come up with a plan to...

Manatees' Die-Off Continues in Florida
Manatee Record in Florida
Is a Grim One
UPDATED

Manatee Record in Florida Is a Grim One

Annual death toll for the marine creatures tops 1K, highest number since at least the '70s

(Newser) - Update: The manatee die-off continues in the Sunshine State, with a grim new record: For the first time, annual deaths of the marine mammal have exceeded 1,000. Per the AP , the Florida Fish and Wildlife Conservation Commission reported on Wednesday that 1,003 manatees have died this year so...

That Foam Is Toxic. They Entered It Anyway

Hindus flocked to India's Yamuna River for a religious festival this week

(Newser) - It sounds innocuous enough: traveling to a tributary of India's Ganges to bathe as part of a Hindu ritual. But as CNN reports, some sections of the Yamuna River were far from ripe for bathing in this week. What's being described as white toxic foam currently cover portions...

Michigan to Pay Flint Residents $600M
Judge Approves
$600M Flint Settlement

updated

Judge Approves $600M Flint Settlement

Thousands will be eligible for payments over contaminated water

(Newser) - Update: Calling it "a remarkable achievement," a judge in Michigan has approved a $626.5 million settlement for thousands of people in Flint whose water was contaminated with lead. US District Judge Judith Levy said Wednesday that the package "is consistent for every qualifying participant, regardless...

US Marine Animals Are Drowning in Plastic—Literally

Report mentions 1.8K cases of animals consuming or being entangled in plastic since 2009

(Newser) - Plastic pollution is taking a disastrous toll on marine animals in the US, particularly those threatened with extinction, according to a new report . It tells of 1,792 cases in which 40 different species of animals consumed or were entangled in plastic since 2009. Of those, 88% involved animals that...

Exhibit on Ocean Pollution Leads to Big Shock for One Woman

German woman spots mixtape she lost 25 years ago—and it still works

(Newser) - If you're in your late 30s or older, you likely remember the unique joy that accompanied creating what we olds call a "mixtape." A German woman is now reliving that elation after she stumbled upon a mixtape she lost 25 years ago while on vacation in Spain....

Water Protections in Place for Decades to Be Gone Within Days

Lawsuits expected to follow rule change under Trump

(Newser) - In the end, government scientists couldn't sway him. President Trump's administration is expected to finalize a change to an Obama-era regulation protecting many US wetlands and streams as soon as Thursday. "More than half the nation's wetlands, and hundreds of thousands of small waterways" will lose...

A Major Scourge in Our Oceans: 'Ghost Gear'
There's a 'Zombie'
in Our Oceans
new report

There's a 'Zombie' in Our Oceans

Greenpeace report finds dumped fishing gear is a leading plastic polluter

(Newser) - Try to comprehend just how much 55,000 double-decker buses weigh. It's a whole heck of a lot—more than a billion pounds. That's how much commercial fishing gear is abandoned in our oceans each year, according to a new report from Greenpeace on "ghost gear."...

EPA Mandate to City: Hand Out Bottled Water ASAP

In Newark, NJ, filters to keep lead out didn't work, leading to recommendation for bottled water

(Newser) - In what the New York Times calls "an echo of Flint," a New Jersey city that's handed out nearly 40,000 filters to help protect residents whose water flows through old lead pipes now says those filters might not be working and is moving to Plan B....

DOJ: Carnival Re-Polluted, Then Tried to 'Drown Its Deceit'

Cruise company ordered to pay $20M on top of previous $40M for pollution violations, cover-up

(Newser) - Fool me once, shame on you; fool me twice—still shame on you, and you're going to pay big for it. That's essentially the Justice Department's message to Carnival Corporation, which just got busted, again, for its ships polluting the waters they sail in, and for trying...

Every Shrimp Tested Had Traces of Cocaine
Study of Shrimp Has
an Unwelcome Surprise
IN CASE YOU MISSED IT

Study of Shrimp Has an Unwelcome Surprise

Every one tested in UK study had traces of cocaine

(Newser) - How's this for an unwelcome surprise in a study of freshwater shrimp: Every one tested in a study of 15 different sites in Britain's rural Suffolk County had traces of cocaine, reports the Guardian . Oh, and traces of the drug ketamine were widespread. Also showing up: a long-banned...

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