Explore the causes and effects of water contamination, including microplastics, chemicals, and stormwater runoff. Learn how to protect lakes, rivers, and freshwater resources.
On April 20, 2010 the Deepwater Horizon drilling rig, located about 41 miles southeast of the Louisiana coast exploded. The explosion and subsequent fire resulted in the sinking of the drilling rig and the deaths of 11 workers. The same blowout that caused the explosion also caused an oil well fire and a massive offshore
More than 85% of the world’s oyster reefs have been lost since the 1900s, through over-harvesting of the species, increased coastal development, destruction of wetlands and increased water pollution. Oysters could one day be the answer to the complex question of how to protect California’s disappearing coastline. While a project to restore oyster populations is
Environment and Water Ministry secretary-general Datuk Seri Zaini Ujang said that the cleaner rivers in the Klang Valley was due to less human interference such as industrial waste and construction works, which contributes to murkey grey waters and general pollution. Globally, countries have seen their waterways clear up and native animals return as human activity
The water of Half Moon Lake in Eau Claire, Wisconsin, will hopefully be clearer once the city’s parks, recreation, and forestry division is done harvesting the aquatic vegetation. Due to the significant amount of floating weeds throughout the lake, the city and the Wisconsin Department of Natural Resources are working together to solve the problem.
The sweet seep of autumn rain is bringing coho salmon back home to their natal streams all over the Puget Sound basin in Washington State— where too often they encounter a bitter truth: pollution in a shocking 40 percent of their home range so bad it can inflict a swift death. The culprit is stormwater,
West Coast beachcombers have treasured the rare sightings of Japanese glass floats; spherical buoys strung together to aid fishermen in managing their catch. It was once thought that these translucent orbs took nearly a decade to reach the U.S.–traveling up to 8,000 miles of open sea. But in 2011, 5 million tons of debris was
During the 20th century, Milwaukee, Wisconsin, became a hub of human activity and commerce. Toxic chemicals, discarded animal hides, meatpacking offal and other waste were dumped into the connected Milwaukee, Menomonee and Kinnickinnic rivers with abandon, not to mention municipal sewage. Now a coalition of government entities and advocates is launching an ambitious project to
An extensive three-year research study of lakes in and around the Grand Portage Indian Reservation in Minnesota has found an abundance of pharmaceuticals, personal care products, hormones, pesticides, and other chemicals in water, lake bottoms and fish. What threat this poses for humans and wildlife will need to be studied further. But the presence of
Every spring, Dr. Carl Isaacson, a professor of environmental studies at Bemidji State University, sends his students out to collect perch from waters across Minnesota. Then, they study an egg yolk protein found in the perch’s’ livers, called vitellogenin, which may provide evidence of endocrine disruption in the state’s aquatic species. Over the past few