It's not just the application of nitrogen fertilizer to farmlands that causes nitrate pollution of water -- it's the timing of that application and the runoff that results. One solution seems to be winter cover crops.

"A new Army Corps of Engineers report warns that unless coastal residents and state and local leaders from the Carolinas to Maine rethink their approach to shoreline development, the next big storm will be equal to or worse than Hurricane Sandy – with its $65 billion in losses, 159 deaths and 650,000 homes damaged or destroyed."

"SANTA URSULA, Mexico — People in the hamlet of Santa Ursula began to worry when the logging started. In a few short weeks, more than a mile of densely forested riverbank was stripped from the Arroyo Sal to make way for heavy dredging equipment."

"State workers performed a California winter ritual Thursday, poking hollow aluminum tubes into Sierra Nevada meadows to measure the snowpack. In what scientists see as a harbinger, they didn't find much."

"A dam in Delaware comes tumbling down; last year 71 others did too."

"POINT REYES NATIONAL SEASHORE, Calif. — The once-bustling oyster farm and sales shack at the end of the dirt road had the look of sudden abandonment."

"Southern California gets the vast majority of its water from four aqueducts that flow from the north, but all of them cross the San Andreas Fault. That means millions of people are just one major earthquake away from drying out for a year or more."

"Government representatives from around the world agreed Saturday to develop the first legally-binding agreement to conserve marine life in the high seas and international seabed, an area covering roughly half the planet."

"The Obama administration moved Tuesday to open up a vast stretch of East Coast waters to oil and gas drilling, a decision that could have a profound impact on the economic and environmental future of states from Virginia to Georgia. The move also adds a new dimension to the legacy of President Obama."

"The ocean conservation group Sea Shepherd has been awarded €8.3m (A$11.8m) at Amsterdam’s annual Good Money Gala, saying it will use the funds to build a new ship and more effectively fight poaching."