Pollution

Oil and gas drilling can usually protect groundwater when enough effort is taken to install well casings and cement them properly. But even those safeguards may fail in karst formations, as the Bureau of Land Management's experience in New Mexico shows.

"AUBURN, Ala. -- Scientific testing has confirmed a link between oil from the massive BP spill and tar found on Alabama beaches after Hurricane Isaac."

"Canadian mining giant Teck Resources Ltd. has admitted in a U.S. court that effluent from its smelter in southeast British Columbia has polluted the Columbia River in Washington for more than a century."

Is the threat of lawsuits discouraging cleanup of abandoned mine drainage that impairs many U.S. waterways? That seems to be the case under an interpretation of existing water pollution law.

"Aging boomers pop more pills to keep fit. Farmers feed more antibiotics and hormones to fatten livestock. Adults and children use exotic shampoos and conditioners to make their hair shiny. Most of these drugs and personal-care chemicals wind up down the drain, into sewage, land-applied sludge, reclaimed water and ultimately the Indian River Lagoon, St. Johns River and other waters."

"Canada and the United States have updated a decades-old agreement to protect the Great Lakes, adding new commitments to protect aquatic habitats, curb invasive species and help coastal communities adapt to climate change."

"Long-awaited dredging will begin this month in Waukegan Harbor to remove soil contaminated with hazardous substances at a Superfund site once described as the 'world's worst PCB mess,' officials announced Thursday at the Waukegan Yacht Club."

"Increasing misuse of chemicals is causing health and environmental damage especially in emerging economies and governments must do more to carry out a promised clean-up by 2020, a United Nations report said on Wednesday."