A new study suggests that estimates for U.S. supplies may be vastly overstated.
Pollution
Posted inArticles
Mining proposal threatens Arizona town’s water supply
Report outlines risks that mine will deplete aquifer and contaminate groundwater.
Posted inArticles
Cleaner air for the Cowboy State
Even remote spots like the Wind Rivers could benefit from the EPA’s proposed crack down on polluters.
Posted inArticles
Duwamish River to get $342 million more for cleanup
The EPA’s order aims to undo decades of industrial pollution to Seattle’s only river.
Posted inNovember 24, 2014: Transportation Transformation
Can biomimicry tackle our toughest water problems?
With floating islands and other inventions, eco-entrepreneur Bruce Kania thinks so.
Posted inNovember 10, 2014: Fallout
Timberland herbicide spraying sickens a community
Companies deposit thousands of pounds of herbicides each year on Oregon forests.
Posted inArticles
The Uintah Basin’s tricky oil and gas ozone problem
Can officials greenlight booming development and clean up the air at the same time?
Posted inArticles
NASA finds methane hot spot over Four Corners
The culprit is the extensive fossil fuel industry infrastructure, not just fracking or coal mines.
Posted inArticles
More pesticides are permeating urban streams
But rural rivers are getting cleaner, a new study says.
Posted inSeptember 15, 2014: Books & Essays
Tragedy, coincidence and patterns
Review of “Downwind: A People’s History of the Nuclear West” by Sarah Alisabeth Fox.
Posted inArticles
Ruling green lights temporary nuclear waste storage
With no central underground depository, above-ground casks will have to do.
Posted inSeptember 1, 2014: Lost in the Woods
The Latest: Ruptured tailings pond spills waste in Canada
Backstory In the remote northwestern corner of British Columbia, next to Alaska, plans for large mining and hydropower projects have sounded alarm bells on both sides of the border. Critics, mostly environmentalists and tribes, warned that Canada’s resource rush threatens rivers that support a vital wild salmon fishery in both countries, and that the race […]
Posted inAugust 4, 2014: Idaho's Sewer System
Idaho’s sewer system is the Snake River
As Big Ag flourishes, this massive waterway suffers.
Posted inAugust 4, 2014: Idaho's Sewer System
Fracking without fresh water
A Texas oil company looks for other ways to supply its water needs.
Posted inGoat
Imminent tar sands mine incites civil disobedience in Utah
Two years ago, HCN contributing editor Jeremy Miller asked if Utah’s tar sands deposits could transform the Beehive State into the Alberta of the high desert. Jeremy’s story focused on a mine proposed by U.S. Oil Sands, a Canadian company, in the Book Cliffs south of Vernal. It’s long been known that eastern Utah’s geological […]
Posted inGoat
‘Lucking out’ for Wyoming’s winter smog
Air quality gets a boost from the state’s infamous sagebrush and wind.
Posted inJuly 21, 2014: On the Wild Edge
A historic moment for the Clean Air Act
How it arrived and how much it matters for the climate.
Posted inJuly 21, 2014: On the Wild Edge
On booms and their remains
Click here to see a full gallery of Sarah Christianson’s photographs of the Bakken oil boom. In 1973, during North Dakota’s second oil boom, then-Gov. Art Link declared, “When we are through with that and the landscape is quiet again … let those who follow and repopulate the land be able to say our grandparents […]
Posted inJuly 21, 2014: On the Wild Edge
Is coal dead?
Which plants are slated for closure or switches to natural gas.
Posted inGoat
Washington’s new clean-water plan is a mixed bag
Washington’s governor last week announced a bold approach for creating cleaner, safer waters for fish and the people who eat them. Unless he didn’t. Every day, the state’s Department of Health releases a map of waterways so polluted that restrictions are placed on the amount and types of fish people should eat. Washington has many […]