New Report on Aging Water Infrastructure Yields Local Stories

January 4, 2012–Rebuilding would not only generate jobs, but also lay down a foundation for future economic growth. Those conclusions came in a December 2011 report from the American Society of Civil Engineers. It finds that a do-nothing policy will cost US businesses $147 billion over the next decade.

Groundwater Drought Can Be Very Different from Surface Drought

December 21, 2011–Groundwater depletion can lead to significant impacts on uses such as drinking water, irrigation, industries, and aquifer recharge, while excess can contribute to flooding. To see how the groundwater is faring in your area, check out NASA's groundwater maps, updated weekly.

States Partly Fill Federal Vacuum on Fracking Fluid Disclosure Law

December 14, 2011–Colorado, which adopted its disclosure rules December 13, 2011, joins Texas, Pennsylvania, and several other states in requiring some disclosure by drillers of the chemicals they pump into shale formations under high pressures to release natural gas. Scores of chemicals, some very toxic, may be involved.

Syngenta Claims Secrecy in Atrazine Trial

November 16, 2011–Attorneys for some 30 utilities suing Syngenta over atrazine pollution of their drinking water supplies charged the company directed employees to send copies of all correspondence on atrazine to corporate attorneys so that attorney-client privilege could be claimed.

Toolbox: Google Ocean Enables a World of Marine Stories

November 9, 2011–Overcome limited budgets for travel and visuals on ocean stories with Google Earth's new realm. Place your story in the context of many mapped layers of ocean features, as well as a realistic rendition of subsea and above-surface views, and add your own text, photos, images, video, narration, sound clips, and multimedia.

Corps Puts Searchable National Levee Database Online

November 2, 2011–Levees have huge environmental and human impacts, but are often neglected by news media until disaster strikes. The NLD should make reporting both routine and crisis stories a lot easier. The bad news is that after several years of work by the Corps, only a small fraction of all the levees in the US have been entered into the database.

Controversial Pesticide Rule Might Protect Waterways

October 26, 2011–US EPA, under a court-ordered deadline of Oct. 31, 2011, is to release a final rule establishing a Pesticides General Permit process, which would establish ways to reduce certain pesticide applications on or near waterways for control of mosquitoes, other flying insects, weeds, algae, animals, and forest canopy pests.

Major Wetland Losses Still Occurring in Forests and Estuaries

October 26, 2011–Wetland acreage in the US declined during 2004-2009, reversing a slightly positive trend of net wetland gains during 1998-2004, according to the latest assessment from the US Fish and Wildlife Service, released Oct. 6, 2011.

NOAA Releases First Fishing Bycatch Report

October 12, 2011–Current fishing methods are rather destructive, with 17% of the fish caught commercially being unintended bycatch, according to NOAA's first national assessment of bycatch. That damages the environment, and costs those who fish time and money.

NOAA Seafood Report Released

September 28, 2011–Use the data to report for communities directly affected by fishing or, at a larger scale, as a hook to report on several other related issues. Also, research another hot topic drawing attention — mislabeling of fish species.