"When the results of tests for lead in the water at more than 1,500 New York City school buildings were announced in July, officials said that fewer than 1 percent of all the samples taken showed lead concentrations that exceeded Environmental Protection Agency guidelines. Given other safety measures in place, officials assured parents, the water was safe to drink. But a review of how the testing was conducted suggests that the amount of lead in the water that students consume could be greater than the results indicate."

"Federal scientists are finding increasing skin and liver tumors in bottom-feeding fish caught in several of Wisconsin's Lake Michigan tributaries that flow through areas with particularly severe environmental problems."

"A little-known program under federal environment law is being used to permit oil and gas companies to inject waste into the state’s aquifers, even as the thirst for groundwater grows. "

"Intense rainfall overwhelmed sewage systems, downed trees and choked roads with floodwater in Tampa Bay on Wednesday as Tropical Storm Hermine inched toward the Florida coast."

"Maryland is fining the owner of two of the state's largest coal power plants $1 million for dumping too much nitrogen into the Potomac and Patuxent rivers, one of the largest penalties state environmental regulators have levied in years."

"Serious algae outbreaks have hit more than 20 states this summer. Organisms are shutting down beaches in Florida, sickening swimmers in Utah and threatening ecosystems in California."

"The Environmental Protection Agency’s internal watchdog has begun 'preliminary research' into the department’s oversight of state drinking water testing."

"FUKUSHIMA DAIICHI NUCLEAR POWER STATION — The part above ground doesn’t look like much, a few silver pipes running in a straight line, dwarfed by the far more massive, scarred reactor buildings nearby."

"New England is running out of mussels. The Gulf of Maine's once strong population of wild blue mussels is disappearing, scientists say."

"Scientists led by researchers with the U.S. Geological Survey have found an elevated number of cases of skin and liver tumors in white suckers in the Milwaukee, Menomonee and Kinnickinnic rivers — a discovery that suggests more work will be needed to remove contaminants from the waterways."