The tests found levels of uranium more than 10 times the legal drinking water standard in one monitoring well a half mile north of the mine. Though the health effects of specific levels are not well understood, the EPA says long-term exposure to high levels of uranium in drinking water may cause cancer and damage kidneys. At the mine itself, wells tested as high as 3.4 milligrams per liter – more than 100 times the standard. That's in an area where ore was processed with sulfuric acid and other toxic chemicals in unlined ponds.

The report, Tritium on Tap, produced by the Sierra Club of Canada, warned that radioactive emissions from various nuclear plants across the country have more than doubled over the past decade. The figures were based on statistics compiled by the Canadian Nuclear Safety Commission which measured pollution coming from the plants. "Once in our body, tritium enters our DNA, fat, proteins and carbohydrates -- and that is where it does its damage from close range," said the Sierra Club report. "It is a carcinogen and causes birth defects."

A sea of ancient water tainted by the Cold War is creeping deep under the volcanic peaks, dry lake beds and pinyon pine forests covering a vast tract of Nevada.Over 41 years, the federal government detonated 921 nuclear warheads underground at the Nevada Test Site, 75 miles northeast of Las Vegas. Each explosion deposited a toxic load of radioactivity into the ground and, in some cases, directly into aquifers.During the era of weapons testing, Nevada embraced its role almost like a patriotic duty. There seemed to be no better use for an empty desert. But today, as Nevada faces a water crisis and a population boom, state officials are taking a new measure of the damage."It is one of the largest resource losses in the country," said Thomas S. Buqo, a Nevada hydrogeologist. "Nobody thought to say, 'You are destroying a natural resource.' "

Five years ago the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency assured the nation that the technology credited with opening vast new natural gas supplies was safe. Now Congress has ordered the agency to take another look.

"The safety of the nation’s water supply should not have to rely on luck or the public relations talents of the oil and gas industry. Thanks in part to two New Yorkers — Representative Maurice Hinchey and Senator Charles Schumer — Congress last week approved a bill that asks the E.P.A. to conduct a new study on the risks of hydraulic fracturing. An agency study in 2004 whitewashed the industry and was dismissed by experts as superficial and politically motivated. This time Congress is demanding “a transparent, peer-reviewed process.”

parking meter deal put a bad taste in your mouth, try swallowing this: Chicago is considering leasing its water system to help fix the budget. The new boss could charge whatever they want for water, CBS 2's Roseanne Tellez reports. Could it happen here in Chicago? It already has nearby. Homer Glen in Will County relies on Lake Michigan water, but the supply comes from a German-owned firm. Locals say there's a lot more than water going down the drain. It's a vital resource you can't live without. But in Homer Glen, the question is can you afford water. Residents say rates are breaking the bank. Homer Glen resident Lillie Gajda said her family has tried to cut back to offset high rates.

Nestlé claims the Sacramento plant would be a “micro-bottling plant,” bottling only 50 million gallons of water per year. However, according to the Department of Utilities, the estimated water usage is 215 thousand – 320 thousand gallons of water per day (78 – 116 millions per year). "This would make Nestlé one of the top ten water users in Sacramento at a time when we are in our third consecutive year of a drought," emphasized Tucker. At a time when Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger, Senator Dianne Feinstein and California Legislators are campaigning for a peripheral canal to steal more water from the Sacramento River to supply unsustainable corporate agribusiness on the west side of the San Joaquin Valley and unsustainable development in southern California, we don't need a huge corporation such as Nestlé making immense profits off a public trust resource, Sacramento's water supply!

A preliminary report from a consultant hired by New York City warns that "nearly every activity" associated with natural gas drilling could potentially harm the city’s drinking water supply and that while the risk can be reduced with strict regulations, "the likelihood of water quality impairment … cannot be eliminated."

Nothing surprises me anymore. Six weeks ago SIGG announced that their aluminum water bottles -- you know, the ones that everyone bought in order to avoid BPA -- actually contained BPA. Now that surprised me. Since that time, I still have not figured out how to resolve my own personal water bottle situation. I want to carry a reusable water bottle. Honestly, I do. I'm on the go a lot, and I drink a lot of water. Ditto for my kids. But I really can't figure out whom to trust. Case in point ... the news this morning that Gaiam's aluminum water bottles -- the ones that were previously labeled "BPA-free," actually leach BPA at 20 times the levels that SIGG bottles did. Last week, the website Z recommends published a report that called out Gaiam on the BPA status of their aluminum water bottles -- bottles that were very clearly being sold as "BPA-free." Today, the company has quietly (on its retail website) provided the data from independent lab test results that show BPA leaching levels at 23.8 parts per billion.

The natural gas industry, with Halliburton leading the charge, has skirted the Clean Water Act for years. They're not about to give up now. Capitalizing on fears of global warming and the growing disdain for fossil fuels, they're pushing gas drilling as a clean, green alternative. And their message seems to be swaying Washington. The new climate bill introduced last week by Sen. John Kerry and Barbara Boxer includes incentives for natural gas.

"Two years ago, Larry Igarashi bet he could build a sprawling house in Orange County's foothills that would sell for at least $10 million. These days, you can easily guess how that turned out. On Saturday he put the eight-bedroom house in the gated Coto de Caza community on the auction block and got a high bid of $6.6 million -- less than he was willing to accept."

Two prominent gas industry executives have directly addressed one of the key environmental concerns surrounding the expansion of natural gas development by calling for the disclosure of chemicals used in hydraulic fracturing.

Atlanta, Georgia - Environmental groups across the southeast United States, from Georgia to the Appalachia region, are stepping up their opposition to a controversial but widespread practice by coal companies of removing the tops of mountains with explosives. Atlanta-based activist Darci Rodenhi recently organised an ad hoc group called Mountain Justice GA, which lobbied the Environmental Protection Agency's (EPA) Atlanta regional office to reject 79 new permits for mountaintop removal. The EPA denied the permits earlier this month, saying the applications were in violation of the Clean Water Act. Advocates see the move as a victory because it was the first set of permits to come before the EPA since President Barack Obama took office in January 2009...

"An Australian town pulled all bottled water from its shelves Saturday and replaced it with refillable bottles in what is believed to be a world-first ban. The tiny town, two hours south of Sydney, voted in July to ban bottled water after a drinks company moved to tap into a local aquifer for its bottled water business." Think globally, act locally.

"State investigators are using a new, more precise method for studying toxic PCBs this year in the Elizabeth and James rivers. And so far, the findings are not pretty. In water samples, the new tests reveal excessively high levels of PCBs - polychlorinated biphenyls, a group of chemicals suspected of causing cancer in humans and animals - throughout much of the Elizabeth and portions of the James, the Virginia Department of Environmental Quality said Thursday. ... Because of their cancer risks, PCBs have not been manufactured in the United States since the 1970s. Yet they continue to exist in the environment - in old transformers, flame retardants, adhesives, inks and carbonless paper that might be buried in the ground or dumped somewhere."

Last week on Wednesday I wrote an article about the current crisis in the country of Fiji and its obscurity here in the Western hemisphere. I started researching the topic because Mother Jones did an investigative piece on Fiji Water last month that briefly touched upon some of these issues, although much of the piece questioned Fiji Water's environmental image and whether it should have as much credibility as it does. In response, Fiji Water blogged about the article and defended their company, quoting statistics on how much they give back to the local community and what they do to keep their water green. And who happened to be the first person to comment back on the Fiji Water blog? Anna Lenzer, author of the original article, and Clara Jeffery, Co-Editor of Mother Jones. From there the conversation runs back and forth, with the public writing in comments and Fiji Water trying to answer questions through their online presence, "Fiji Media Gal" and "Fiji Green Gal". Reading the debate, it provides for an interesting insight not only into journalism today but also gives us an idea of just how much accessibility regular citizens have to influential members of society thanks to modern technology. Here is a national debate over human rights, healthy water and the environment, and the public is able to have a back and forth conversation with writers at Mother Jones and people working at Fiji Water.

An investigation by the New York Times has found chemical companies have violated the Clean Water Act more than 500,000 times in the last five years. Most of the violations have gone unpunished, with state regulators taking significant action in just three percent of all cases. Although some of the cases entailed minor violations, a majority of 60 percent were deemed to be in "significant noncompliance." These cases are of the most serious and include the dumping of cancer-causing chemicals or failing to measure or report pollution. An estimated one in ten Americans has been exposed to drinking water that has dangerous chemicals or falls short of federal standards. Forty percent of the nation's community water systems violated the Safe Drinking Water Act at least once, exposing over 23 million people to potential danger.

"“Sometimes it smells like a barn coming out of the faucet,” said Lisa Barnard, who lives a few towns over, and just 15 miles from the city of Green Bay. Tests of her water showed it contained E. coli, coliform bacteria and other contaminants found in manure. Last year, her 5-year-old son developed ear infections that eventually required an operation. Her doctor told her they were most likely caused by bathing in polluted water, she said."

For the past 14 years Fiji Water has been banking off the image that their product is the cleanest and healthiest water you can find, made in the middle of paradise. "Far from pollution. Far from acid rain. Far from industrial waste. There's no question about it: Fiji is far away," their website boasts. As of late, however, this same image seems to be falling down all around them. Earlier this month, Fiji's military-led government was suspended from the Commonwealth, an intergovernmental organization made up of fifty-three independent member-states, most of them former colonies of the British Empire. The organization said it was forced to act after Fiji continually refused to meet their demands to restore democracy within the country and resume dialogue with opposition groups. "This is an announcement I make with deep regret -- it is a step the Commonwealth is now obliged to take, and one that it takes in sorrow," Commonwealth Secretary-General Kamalesh Sharma said in a statement. Their move gets to the heart of the country's current governmental crisis, one that has been grossly under-reported by the American media and easily obscured by branding from companies such as Fiji Water.

"Sure, everyone agrees that we have to change, but we in the West are fond of focusing blame on personal bad habits that waste water -- and they couldn't be more real -- rather than corporate habits that waste so much more. The fact is that we Westerners have never paid anything like what our water truly costs and we lack disincentives to waste water and incentives to conserve it. Behind all that fuss you hear from us about the damn government and how independent-minded we Westerners are, is a long history of massive dam and pipeline projects financed by the American taxpayer, featuring artificially low prices and not a few crony-run boondoggles. Call it welfare water."