Butte, Montana, doesn’t have a major art museum. Instead, it has a gigantic toxic pit.
Pollution
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Offshore oil rigs are a surprising safe haven
Marine life finds a home on the artificial reefs. What happens when the platforms are decommissioned?
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40 years after its closure, the Jackpile Mine’s toxic legacy continues
‘They have to look at it every day and wonder if that’s the reason why they’re dying.’
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In California’s Central Valley, the water is contaminated and solutions are slow
The communities dealing with the carcinogenic water worry and aren’t kept well informed.
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EPA announces $630 million plan to stem cross-border sewage flows
Once approved, these infrastructure projects will treat contaminated water before it’s released into the ocean.
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Ozone pollution is on the rise in the West
Wildfires, oil and gas drilling, vehicle emissions, and climate change all combine to create more days with unhealthy levels of the colorless, odorless gas.
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California oil spill contaminates restored wetland
The Talbert Marsh is refuge to at least 90 species of shorebirds, and now it’s slicked with oil.
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Climate change increases rare earth elements in Colorado’s Snake River
A new study suggests lower stream flows as a primary culprit.
Posted inSeptember 1, 2021: Where Wolves May Tread
The familial bond between the Klamath River and the Yurok people
How a tribal community’s health is intimately connected to the health of the river.
Posted inSeptember 1, 2021: Where Wolves May Tread
The effort to save Upper Klamath Lake’s endangered fish before they disappear
Another dry year pushes tribal nations, federal agencies and irrigators to find long-lasting solutions.
Posted inSeptember 1, 2021: Where Wolves May Tread
Will Klamath salmon outlast the dam removal process?
Their future comes down to a race between paperwork and a fish disease.
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For dairy cows, where there’s smoke, there’s less milk
Scientists in Idaho are finding that wildfire smoke dampens milk production and coincides with increased risk of disease and even death in dairy cows.
Posted inAugust 1, 2021: A Mega-Dairy Comes to the Desert
Reviving traditional Apsáalooke water sources
Tribal scientists and community members are testing wells, solving plumbing problems and delivering clean water to their neighbors.
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How yellowcake shaped the West
The ghosts of the uranium boom continue to haunt the land, water and people.
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Living Water: Three generations of Apsáalooke revive a river
On the Crow Nation, scientists, students and community members come together to study and protect the Little Bighorn River.
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Development threatens one of Montana’s ‘blue-ribbon’ trout rivers
Noxious algae is choking the very watershed that’s drawing people to develop property there.
Posted inJuly 1, 2021: An Urban Greenspace Revolution
Reclaiming LA
Communities in Los Angeles are turning industrial sites into pockets of green.
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Can the sun solve New Mexico’s energy conundrum?
The state is dependent on oil and gas, but Carlsbad has opportunity to become the epicenter of renewable energy.
Posted inJuly 1, 2021: An Urban Greenspace Revolution
‘I’m scared of getting sick from the water’
Some rural California communities have waited nearly a decade for state regulators to repair their tainted drinking-water systems.
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The toxic, soupy biomass choking water systems in California
Algae blooms in Clear Lake are a public health risk and increase water treatment costs.