"Three days after EPA workers triggered a huge blowout at a festering mine in southwestern Colorado, a mustard-colored plume — still fed by 548 gallons leaking per minute — stretched more than 100 miles, spreading contaminants including cadmium, arsenic, copper, lead and zinc."

"Humpback whales don't just sing songs — they compose with the whales around them, singing a song that evolves over time. Scientists didn't know that until they started recording whale sounds in the 1960s and spent years listening."

"DENVER — A million-gallon mine waste spill that sent a plume of orange-ish muck down a river in southwest Colorado on Thursday was caused by a federal mine cleanup crew."

"An environmental group petitioned the federal government on Thursday to immediately inspect more than 200 miles (320 km) of undersea oil pipelines off California's coast."

"In August 2014, chemicals from a Grupo México mine contaminated a main waterway. A Mexicoleaks Alliance investigation reveals that the spill control equipment at the Buenavista Copper Mine was not in compliance with regulations that federal authorities had failed to enforce since 2011. Now residents of seven Sonora municipalities are filing suit."

As August warms waters seasonally in many parts of the U.S., harmful algal blooms are causing health hazards. A prime example is Toledo, where high levels of an algal toxin made city drinking water unusable last year. Algal blooms in the warm, shallow Lake Erie are worsened by agricultural runoff. With climate warming, new algal blooms are showing up in new places, like the Pacific Ocean.

"Dolphins tend to strike a deep emotional chord in many people who encounter them. Famous for their intelligence and physical ability, there have been reports that the marine mammals have come to the rescue of humans at sea."

"MOSCOW -- Russia said on Tuesday it has resubmitted a claim to the United Nations for some 1.2 million square km of the Arctic shelf, a drive to secure more of the mineral-rich region where other countries have rival territorial interests."

"The U.S. has more than 11,000 flood control dams. Many were built more than half a century ago, and delayed maintenance is starting to catch up with them. The problem is particularly acute in Oklahoma, which has more than 2000 dams and which, this year, has record rainfall."