"The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency is on schedule to release federal guidelines for the disposal of coal ash some time this month, but a potential loophole in the new rules has some worried they will leave Iowans unprotected."

Cleanup of polluting runoff from abandoned mines in Colorado and elsewhere is stalled by a legal paradox.

"BP Plc on Tuesday began cleaning up an oil spill from a leaky Alaskan pipeline, but said it has not determined what caused the leak or how much material spilled onto the snow-covered tundra."

"The Environmental Protection Agency issued a final rule Monday aimed at reducing pollution from construction sites, saying that it will significantly improve the quality of water nationwide."

"Concerns about toxics discharged from an unlined coal ash waste dump in suburban Washington, DC have prompted four environmental groups to give formal notice that they intend to sue Mirant MD Ash Management, LLC and Mirant Mid-Atlantic, LLC Corporation of Atlanta, Georgia for Clean Water Act violations in Maryland."

Despite tens of billions spent under the 1972 Clean Water Act to upgrade the sewage-handling systems of U.S. cities, many have reached capacity and are unable to handle wet-weather flows. The result is that many are "violating the law by dumping untreated or partly treated human waste, chemicals and other hazardous materials into rivers and lakes."

Cleanup of toxic chemicals at 26 former Cold War missile sites in Kansas is an unfinished project.