"After a brief but rancorous debate, a House committee approved a fast-tracked bill that would shift regulatory powers over water, wetlands and mountaintop-mining regulation from U.S. EPA to the states."

"The state of the oceans is declining far more rapidly than most pessimists had expected, an international team of experts has concluded, increasing the risk that many marine species -- including those that make coral reefs -- could be extinct within a generation."

The Missouri River flooding confronting Iowans is "a historic double punch expected to continue at least into August and one that worries even the most battle-hardened veterans of previous flood fights."

"The current drought, drier than any other October-through-May stretch in Texas history, has heightened the stakes in an already contentious long-term planning battle over water from these lakes, which feed the lower Colorado River as it runs southeast to the Gulf of Mexico. It has pitted fast-growing cities like Austin, which depend on the water for drinking and recreation, against rice farmers near the Gulf, who need vast amounts of water for irrigation."

"Oregon's Environmental Quality Commission [Thursday] adopted the strictest standards for toxic water pollution in the United States."

"Indian officials signed an agreement with the World Bank on Tuesday to use a $1 billion loan to finance the first major new effort in more than 20 years to cleanse the revered Ganges, one of the world’s dirtiest rivers."

"This year's record Mississippi River floods are forecast to create the biggest Gulf of Mexico 'dead zone' since systematic mapping began in 1985, U.S. scientists reported on Tuesday."

"The snowpack in the Rocky Mountains has been gradually thinning over much of the past century, and a new study attributes much of that to global warming."

"The spectrum of actions marking the UN's annual World Oceans Day ranges from the celebratory to the cautionary as ocean health is assaulted by challenges that include climate change, oil spills, pollution and overfishing."