"The Center for Biological Diversity filed suit against the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service on Feb. 11 for failing to make a preliminary decision about whether to expand protection for the saltmarsh sparrow, a bird whose population is in sharp decline around the Chesapeake Bay and the marshes along the East Coast."

"Donald Trump approved a federal emergency declaration Saturday related to a sewer main break north of Washington DC that threatens to put a stink on the US’s 250th anniversary celebrations in the US capital this summer."

"A D.C. utility had been working for weeks to repair a collapsed sewer line when the president blamed Maryland’s governor for the contamination on Monday."

"The Washington Post produced high-quality and wide-ranging climate coverage. Then it fired most of its climate reporters."

"Polychlorinated biphenyls, or PCBs, haven’t been produced since 1979, after studies found that exposure to them could cause a variety of harmful health effects, including cancer. But they were so widely used before then and so long-lasting that they still impair water quality in much of the tidal Chesapeake Bay and its tributaries."

"A wastewater spill into the Potomac River that began last month now appears to be one of the largest in American history."

"Scientists have known for years that water levels are rising faster in the Chesapeake Bay region than just about anywhere else in the world — because water is only part of the problem here. The land is also sinking."

"Virginia’s newly elected Democratic Attorney General Jay Jones took action Thursday that creates a pathway for Virginia to rejoin the carbon market called the Regional Greenhouse Gas Initiative, or RGGI."

"A massive pipe that moves millions of gallons of sewage has ruptured and sent wastewater flowing into the Potomac River northwest of Washington, D.C., polluting it ahead of a major winter storm that has repair crews scrambling."

"Pennsylvania is still cleaning up decades’ worth of coal mining pollution. Now it must also contend with millions of tons of fracking waste, some of it radioactive."