"Fire consumed a chemical plant west of Oklahoma City overnight Thursday, forcing evacuations but causing no injuries and leaving surrounding areas unscathed, officials said."

"NEW ORLEANS -- While officials try to pin down the source of a deadly amoeba found in the water supply of a suburban New Orleans community, bottled water sales in St. Bernard Parish have skyrocketed and some people worry about washing their faces in the shower."

"In response to complaints from neighbors, Norfolk Southern agreed Thursday to take more aggressive steps to clean up lung-damaging diesel pollution from equipment at the railroad's Englewood freight yard."

"Wildlife managers in Montana are trying to pinpoint whether a disease, environmental toxin or chemical agent has caused a die-off of more than 100 whitetail deer in wetlands along a river corridor in the western part of the state."

"The good news: A sample of what are probably the best fracked wells in the country finds low emissions of methane, a potent heat-trapping gas. The bad news: The study likely missed the super-emitters, the wells that are responsible for the vast majority of methane leakage."

"New rules limiting emissions from U.S. power plants that are expected to be proposed on Friday will 'provide certainty' to the coal industry, environment and energy chiefs told lawmakers anxious about the fuel's future."

"The U.S. government rejected the sale of coal in Wyoming after an auction drew the lowest top bid in 15 years, as the outlook for the power-plant fuel weakens because of cheap natural gas and new rules coming out this week."

"Property losses from flooding in Colorado will total nearly $2 billion, about half from housing and half in the commercial and government sectors, catastrophe modeling firm Eqecat said on Wednesday in the first comprehensive estimate of the disaster's economic toll."

"Japanese authorities, now struggling to contain leaks of radioactive groundwater from the wrecked Fukushima nuclear plant, were urged two years ago by U.S. experts to take immediate steps to prevent groundwater contamination but decided not to act on the advice."

"The nominee for Federal Energy Regulatory Commission chairman reached out to executives at oil giant BP PLC for help with the confirmation process, according to emails released yesterday by a conservative think tank opposing his nomination."

"MINERVA, N.Y. -- A 250-foot waterfall, one of the tallest in the Northeast, tumbles over giant slabs of marble. A chain of 13 crystalline lakes and ponds teems with bass and lake trout. A 10-mile stretch of the Hudson River gorge winds through dense stands of hemlock, white pine and red maple."

"Women in Northern California farm towns gave birth to smaller babies if they lived within three miles of strawberry fields and other crops treated with the pesticide methyl bromide, according to researchers."

"WILLIAMSPORT, Pa. -- A federal judge has approved settlement with a Texas firm over the discharge of fluids from a Marcellus Shale natural gas well site in Lycoming County."

"Texas oil and gas officials are once again investigating whether gas drilling contaminated water wells in a neighborhood west of Fort Worth where similar charges gained national attention nearly three years ago."

"With the annual pullback of Arctic Ocean sea ice at an end, it’s clear that this year’s retreat is nowhere near the satellite-era record set in 2012, but it’s also clear that there is still a long-term trajectory toward a largely open-water Arctic in summers in coming decades."