EPA has reissued the operating permit for the world's largest sewage treatment plant -- Blue Plains, which handles sewage from most of the DC metro area. Despite huge improvements in the Potomac River since the 1960s, Blue Plains needs to reduce its nitrogen discharge another 45 percent to protect the Chesapeake Bay.

"One-hundred-foot-tall waves can be nightmarish ship-swallowing monsters — or seductive sirens that tempt the adventurous. But it wasn't until 15 years ago that scientists were even able to prove that such giant rogue waves actually existed."

A 30-inch natural gas pipeline routed through a densely populated area in San Bruno, Calif., exploded Thursday, killing at least 7 people. The fireball rose some 1,000 feet in the air and destroyed dozens of homes.

"Scientists on a research vessel in the Gulf of Mexico are finding a substantial layer of oily sediment stretching for dozens of miles in all directions. Their discovery suggests that a lot of oil from the Deepwater Horizon didn't simply evaporate or dissipate into the water — it has settled to the seafloor."

"Bill McKibben, an environmental campaigner from Vermont with a flair for showmanship, was rebuffed Friday morning in his effort to get the White House to reinstall one of the solar panels that President Jimmy Carter had placed on the White House roof."

"A plan to ship 16 steam generators on the Detroit River and Great Lakes has sparked an international outcry. What alarms residents on the U.S. and Canadian sides of the waterways is the material inside the generators -- nuclear waste."

"The first wave of mass-produced advanced batteries funded by the Obama administration's economic recovery program is starting to roll off assembly lines, setting the stage for new hybrid and electric vehicles."

"Candidates are lining up behind the issue of gas drilling as the controversial method called hydrofracking takes center stage this election season in the Finger Lakes region."

"The story of Hilmar is a classic tale of a company growing rapidly, bringing good jobs but also environmental threats to a rural farm community. In an ironic twist, though, it isn’t corporate outsiders pitted against town residents; the owners of Hilmar Cheese are descendants of the community’s founding families. Much of the well water around the cheese plant, located in the agricultural heart of California, isn’t fit to drink. And Hilmar Cheese is the likely culprit, new documents show."