Water & Oceans

Drinking water sources, purification, and distribution systems are essential to public health, and failures could be catastrophic.

The Bureau of Reclamation announced laconically Sept. 12 that it had stepped up security at Hoover, Glen Canyon, and Grand Coulee dams.

There are places along the Mississippi River (e.g. New Orleans) where many people live in areas that would normally be flooded, were it not for levees or other flood control works.

On Feb. 1, 2001, the Army Corps of Engineers is expected to release its final implementation plan for returning the flow of the Missouri River to more natural levels.

The Southern Environmental Law Center's top 10 places in America's South that face "immediate, potentially irreparable threats in 2009" represent a cross-section of the major environmental issues facing these states.

In one of many last-minute actions, the Bush administration delayed a decision on a drinking water standard for the contaminant perchlorate (used in rocket fuel, explosives, fireworks, and many other industrial products, and also occurs naturally), but issued a temporary advisory recommendation. This has immediate implications for at least 31 large US utilities, and perhaps hundreds more.

When water providers find pharmaceuticals in drinking water, they rarely tell the public.

After Congressional Democrats criticized them for suppressing a report on toxic substances in the Great Lakes, and after an independent investigative journalism group published excerpts, the Centers for Disease Control finally published it March 12, 2008.

Can the public be trusted with information about drugs in their drinking water?