"Unbeknown to California officials, oil producers in Kern County have been disposing of chemical-laden wastewater in hundreds of unlined trenches in the ground without proper permits, according to an inventory that regional water officials completed this week."

"A long-fought legal battle to recover $8.9 billion in damages from Exxon Mobil Corporation for the contamination and loss of use of more than 1,500 acres of wetlands, marshes, meadows and waters in New Jersey has been quietly settled by the state for around $250 million."

"Shell has shelved plans for a major new tar sands mine in Canada, the largest project yet to fall victim to low oil prices."

"The U.S. House of Representatives on Tuesday approved legislation that orders the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency to fight the toxic algal blooms that tainted drinking water from Lake Erie last summer."

"The EPA will investigate whether a North Carolina state agency's regulation of industrial pig farms discriminates against communities of color."

"Fukushima fishermen appear to have finally run out of patience with Tokyo Electric Power Co. They lambasted TEPCO at a meeting on Feb. 25 over the utility’s failure for half a year to disclose the flow into the ocean of water contaminated with radioactive materials from the Fukushima No. 1 nuclear power plant."

"Sensors at the Fukushima nuclear plant have detected a fresh leak of highly radioactive water into the sea."

"Federal prosecutors filed multiple criminal charges against Duke Energy on Friday over years of illegal pollution leaking from coal ash dumps at five North Carolina power plants."

"Amid pressure from neighborhood groups and Mayor Rahm Emanuel, BP later this year will halt shipments of dusty petroleum coke to Chicago sites across the border from its giant Whiting, Ind., refinery."