"DENVER — A million-gallon mine waste spill that sent a plume of orange-ish muck down a river in southwest Colorado on Thursday was caused by a federal mine cleanup crew."
"An environmental group petitioned the federal government on Thursday to immediately inspect more than 200 miles (320 km) of undersea oil pipelines off California's coast."
"The lesser prairie chicken population appears to be on the rebound a year after the U.S. Department of Fish and Wildlife placed the bird in threatened status."
"The battle to tame California's fiercest wildfire this year, the big Rocky blaze north of Napa Valley wine country, neared a turning point on Thursday as ground crews fighting the flames for an eighth day steadily extended their control lines."
"Millions of people around the world are experiencing a scorching summer, as records are broken and thermostats climb this week in parts of Europe. Temperatures in Paris and Brussels exceeded 90 degrees Fahrenheit at a time of year when 70-degree weather is the norm, according to Accuweather.com."
The megabillionaire Koch brothers, whose agenda opposes environmental regulation, have a major impact on Republican politics -- including the 2016 presidential race. Their influence is magnified by the big donors they attract to their causes via semiannual retreats like the one that just ended at a luxury resort near Dana Point, Calif. This year, journalists got limited access to the traditionally secret conclave by agreeing not to disclose donors' identities. Now critics are asking whether such rules compromise the integrity of journalism.
"Conservationists declared victory on Wednesday in a legal battle over Idaho's systematic killing of wolves in a national wilderness area after the state notified federal land managers it did not intend to reinstate a controversial kill program."
"In August 2014, chemicals from a Grupo México mine contaminated a main waterway. A Mexicoleaks Alliance investigation reveals that the spill control equipment at the Buenavista Copper Mine was not in compliance with regulations that federal authorities had failed to enforce since 2011. Now residents of seven Sonora municipalities are filing suit."
As August warms waters seasonally in many parts of the U.S., harmful algal blooms are causing health hazards. A prime example is Toledo, where high levels of an algal toxin made city drinking water unusable last year. Algal blooms in the warm, shallow Lake Erie are worsened by agricultural runoff. With climate warming, new algal blooms are showing up in new places, like the Pacific Ocean.
EPA is trying to phase out the soil fumigant methyl bromide, on which the commercial strawberry crop has been dependent. Methyl bromide damages the ozone layer of the atmosphere. But the effort to find an adequate substitute has scientists scrambling.
