NEW ORLEANS (AP) — Geologists have long known that New Orleans is slowly sinking — but now, scientists using radar technology say groundwater sucked up by industrial facilities such as a power plant, oil refineries and chemical complexes may be contributing to the problem and could even be undermining levees. This new study is the latest attempt to explain a ...

WASHINGTON (AP) — The Senate on Thursday approved a $37.5 billion measure to fund energy and water programs next year, the first of the 12 spending bills lawmakers must approve to keep the government operating. On a vote of 90-8, senators backed the legislation that would fund the Energy Department as well as infrastructure projects administered by the U.S. Army ...

SAN FRANCISCO (AP) — The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency is failing in its mandate to protect underground drinking water reserves from oilfield contamination, according to a federal review singling out lax EPA oversight in California, where the state routinely allowed oil companies to dump wastewater into some drinking water aquifers. The U.S. Government Accountability Office review also sampled EPA operations ...

TOKYO (AP) — To dump or not to dump a little-discussed substance is the question brewing in Japan as it grapples with the aftermath of the nuclear catastrophe in Fukushima five years ago. The substance is tritium. The radioactive material is nearly impossible to remove from the huge quantities of water used to cool melted-down reactors at the Fukushima Dai-ichi ...

MONTPELIER, Vt. (AP) — Vermont’s energy efficiency utility is offering rebates to maple sugar makers to help them make their operations more energy efficient. Efficiency Vermont says most Vermont sugar makers use oil or wood-fired evaporators to boil their sap. But it says reverse osmosis systems can remove more than 75 percent of the water from sap before boiling, reducing ...

BOSSIER CITY, La. (AP) — Torrential rain pounded Louisiana for a fourth day Friday, leaving roads impassable, submerging cars and forcing people from their homes overnight. The Bossier City area across the Red River from Shreveport has taken the brunt of the storm that began saturating northern Louisiana late Tuesday. At least three people have died, and mandatory evacuations have ...

TOKYO (AP) — After battling radioactive water leaks for five years at Japan’s crippled Fukushima Dai-Ichi nuclear plant, the utility that ran it says it will need another four to finish the job. “We will bring an end to the problem by 2020,” says Yuichi Okamura, who led the Tokyo Electric Power Co. team dealing with water at Fukushima from ...

WHEATFIELD — The Town Board voted Monday in favor of a six-month moratorium on the storage or application of waste from hydraulic fracturing on any land or road in the town. Asked whether any such material has been used in Wheatfield, Town Attorney Matthew E. Brooks said, “No, and we don’t want any, either.” Some municipalities have used water from ...

Both sides of the debate over the controversial Constitution Pipeline project are ratcheting up pressure on Gov. Andrew Cuomo to act in ways that fulfill their respective wishes on state permits sought by the developer. The drama surrounding the looming decision comes as speculation mounts that the state Department of Environmental Conservation could act any day now on the so-called ...

The Pennsylvania Department of Environmental Protection (DEP) concluded a six-month long investigation finding no indication of elevated radioactivity contaminating the Tenmile Creek, a primary source of drinking water tangled within the heart of Southwestern Pennsylvania’s Marcellus Shale gas fields. The study was conducted after questions arose following the DEP’s collection of surface water samples taken in the spring of 2014 when the ...