"Eighteen cattle likely died of selenium poisoning near a southeastern Idaho phosphate mine, the latest livestock deaths in a region rich in phosphates where a legacy of pollution has killed horses and hundreds of sheep since the 1990s."

"Glaciers on the iconic Teton Range are shrinking, researchers say, joining a growing list of glaciers in North America and beyond that are losing their surface area and potentially reducing the water supply for nearby regions."

"After four years of negotiations, Utah and Nevada officials have created a draft agreement for management of the controversial Snake Valley aquifer straddling both states."

"As it races to replenish phosphate supplies for its weed-killing cash machine Roundup, Monsanto Co. insists its history of polluting southeastern Idaho’s high country shouldn’t prevent it from digging fresh open pits here."

"Part of the Nevada Test Site that hosted nuclear blasts in the past has been closed to avoid a costly cleanup of contaminated soils."

"The Obama administration is proposing to allow up to 318 snowmobiles per day into Yellowstone National Park for the next two winters, cutting by more than half the 720 allowed last winter by the Bush administration."

"Rainbow trout are rebounding in the Madison River, the world-class fishing stream where Montana's first known outbreak of whirling disease occurred about 15 years ago, devastating the rainbow fishery."

"Colorado Gov. Bill Ritter, a Democrat, is not known for being a friend of fossil fuels. ...So it was a bit of a surprise this month when Ritter told oil and gas executives that natural gas should not be seen as simply a bridge fuel."

"Should the federal government store 17,000 tons of mercury at the Idaho National Laboratory? 'The answer is no,' said Gov. Butch Otter."

It took a lawsuit by residents of Sunburst, Montana, to start cleanup of an underground spill of gasoline that took place 50 years earlier.

"The Environmental Protection Agency yesterday declared its first-ever 'public health emergency,' saying the federal government will funnel $6 million to provide medical care for people sickened by asbestos from a mine in northwest Montana."

"The Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals will hear oral arguments Wednesday on whether the Canadian corporation Barrick Gold will be allowed to construct and operate an open pit gold mine on Mt. Tenabo in Nevada."

"Hoover Dam generates some of the power that lights Las Vegas all night long. But there's something that's making that job a bit more difficult."

"A new $6 million federal grant could be the first step toward declaring a public health emergency in asbestos-contaminated Libby, Mont., the state's senior senator said Thursday."

"Dust storms accelerated by a warming climate have covered the Rocky Mountains with dirt whose heat-trapping properties have caused snowpacks to melt weeks earlier than normal, worrying officials in Colorado about drastic water shortages by late summer."