"The silvery water of the Royal River glistens as sunlight strikes its surface on an overcast afternoon. The modest waterway flows an easy 39 miles from southern Maine’s Sabbathday Lake to the Atlantic coast at Casco Bay, attracting kayakers, paddleboarders, and great blue heron."
"Officials are shoring up water systems infiltrated by the golden mussel. Dogs and human inspectors are checking boats at some lakes, but a patchwork of oversight leaves many lakes unprotected. “There’s just too many boats and too many people out there,” one warden said."
"Wetlands provide freshwater, food, storm protection and climate regulation. Yet over the last 50 years, humans have destroyed one-fifth of them." "A landmark report for the global agreement on wetlands paints a dire picture of the state of the world’s water bodies that underpin all life on Earth."
"Stepping onto an old wooden duck blind in the middle of the York River, Bryan Watts looks down at a circle of sticks and pine cones on the weathered, guano-spattered platform. It’s a failed osprey nest, taken over by diving terns."
"Recognized for their environmental stewardship rooted in ancestral practices, seven tribes in Virginia are seeking full membership in the Chesapeake Bay Program alongside its existing signatory partners"
"First, a filthy Chesapeake Bay represented all that wasn’t working with America’s stewardship of its natural environment. Then, the bay became a success story. The sloughs of poorly treated sewage at the bottom of slime-green lagoons disappeared, and oyster populations, once nearly wiped out, made a near-miraculous comeback. ... In recent years, however, progress has stalled."
"Researchers and hatcheries are exploring new ways to protect shellfish in the Pacific Northwest, although Trump budget cuts may thwart their efforts."
"The Trump administration says that it plans to delay and potentially loosen water pollution rules for coal-fired power plants."
"Abandoned coal mines had left waterways acidic and rusty orange. Local residents are cleaning them up, and recovering rare earths in the process."
"Roughly 1.1 million gallons of crude oil spilled from a pipeline into the Gulf of Mexico in November 2023 because operators failed to shut it down for nearly 13 hours after their data first hinted at a problem, the National Transportation Safety Board said Thursday."
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