Thousands of pesticides are used on crops and landscaping, are they in our groundwater? According to a new USGS study, the answer is a qualified yes—some pesticides and the chemical compounds they degrade to are common in groundwater used for public drinking-water supply, but mostly at concentrations well below levels of concern for human health.

The insecticide fipronil and some of the compounds it degrades to are more toxic to aquatic insects, such as mayflies and stoneflies, than previously estimated, reports a new study from the USGS Regional Stream Quality Assessment. The insecticide fipronil was detected in 22% of 444 small streams sampled across five major US regions; where fipronil was detected it was commonly at concentrations likely to be toxic to the most sensitive species.

A new USGS study reports that about 2.3 percent of drinking-water wells in the U.S. have concentrations of strontium at levels that present a potential human health risk. These wells provide water for an estimated 2.3 million people.

The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) has extended the public comment period to February 19, 2021 on its proposed cleanup plan for the Riverside Industrial Park Superfund site on the bank of the Passaic River in Newark. The proposed plan includes a combination of technologies and methods to address the cleanup of contaminated soil, soil gas (gas trapped in the soil), groundwater, sewer water and waste at the site.

The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) and the U.S. Department of Justice (DOJ) today announced a settlement with U.S Magnesium (USM) to resolve violations of the Resource Conservation and Recovery Act (RCRA) and require response actions under the Comprehensive Environmental Response, Compensation and Liability Act (CERCLA) at its Rowley, Utah facility. The settlement includes extensive process modifications at the facility that will reduce the environmental impacts from its production operations and will ensure greater protection for its workers.

A developer and his companies have agreed to effectuate $900,000 in compensatory mitigation, preserve undisturbed riparian areas, conduct erosion-control work on streams, and be subject to a prohibitory injunction to resolve alleged violations of the Clean Water Act (CWA) on property north of Houston, Texas, the Justice Department announced today.

This is a short Video by the National Science Foundation (NSF) where Oceanographer Dr. Kara Lavender Law shows how small bits of plastic, called microplastics, accumulate across the Atlantic Ocean and tells us why scientists must understand how it gets there in the first place.

For the first time, NSF-funded researchers at the University of California Santa Barbara have collected long-term evidence that links rising levels of carbon and changes in ocean chemistry in Antarctic waters to the inability of tiny animals, such as sea snails, to build the protective, shells they need to survive. As oceans absorb carbon-dioxide from the air, it makes the water more acidic, decreasing what scientists call the ph.

With support from the National Science Foundation (NSF), engineers Balky Nair, Rahul Shendure and Tim Mundon develop a utility-scale wave energy harvester called the Triton. It's a sturdy system with few moving parts -- rugged enough to stand up to harsh seas with little need for maintenance. This technology shows promise as a means for delivering utility-scale electric power to the grid at a price that is competitive with conventional fossil or renewable technologies.