"A recent report by a federal watchdog agency says pipes meant to carry radioactive waste at the Hanford Nuclear Reservation could leak, spray or even explode."

"Thursday night's Republican debate was worth watching if only to see Tim Pawlenty try to talk his way around his previous support for efforts to cut planet-warming emissions. As governor of Minnesota, Pawlenty not only acknowledged that climate change is a problem, but also endorsed a cap-and-trade plan to deal with it. That makes him something of a pariah among other Republicans these days."

"As the Mississippi River continued carrying near-record amounts of water past Memphis, draining storm-drenched lands stretching from the Rocky Mountains to the Appalachians, officials combined messages of reassurance and caution."

"The Fukushima Daiichi nuclear accident exposed flaws in the Japanese government's measures to guard the country's reactors against earthquakes and tsunamis. U.S. officials in recent years also have worried that Japanese officials haven't taken enough precautions to protect the facilities from terrorist attacks, according to diplomatic documents released over the weekend on the WikiLeaks website."

"U.S. Attorney General Eric Holder on Friday directed a special task force to look into whether gasoline prices are falling in the wake of the drop in oil prices and if not, whether it was because of fraud or market manipulation."

"Methane levels were 17 times higher in ground water near areas where shale-gas 'fracking' wells had been drilled in Pennsylvania, compared with areas where no gas drilling had occurred, a new study has found."

"The U.S. Food and Drug Administration has just filed a complaint in federal court, seeking a permanent injunction against Amish farmer Dan Allgyer in Pennsylvania. It accuses him of violating a federal prohibition on interstate sales of raw milk by shipping unpasteurized milk to a Maryland buying club's members."

"During an audit last year, federal authorities found an industrial plant had flushed pollutants into Columbia’s sewer system without making sure the contaminants were at legal levels."
 

Phosphorus, mined primarily from phosphate rock, is a key fertilizer ingredient that maintains U.S. farm productivity. But once it runs off into lakes and streams it can be too much of a good thing.