Researchers at University of Wisconsin–Madison have published a study of findings that show a toxic plume of per- and polyfluoroalkyl substances, also known as PFAS or forever chemicals, is moving into Green Bay of Lake Michigan through groundwater. PFAS are often called forever chemicals because of their inability to break down in the environment, and […]
By Thomas Marlow, James R. Elliott, and Scott Frickel Climate science is clear: Floodwaters are a growing risk for many American cities, threatening to displace not only people and housing but also the land-based pollution left behind by earlier industrial activities. In 2019, researchers at the U.S. Government Accountability Office investigated climate-related risks at the […]
New research has discovered another way that microplastic pollution might harm human health. The study, published in Environmental Pollution, is the first to prove that certain viruses can stay infectious by attaching themselves to plastics in a freshwater environment. “We found that viruses can attach to microplastics, which allows them to survive in the water […]
On the southern coast of Florida, researchers have found prescription drugs in the waterways and marine life. When medications are flushed, poured down drains, or excreted into wastewater, they can contaminate local waterways. Outdated infrastructure has been unable to filter out these contaminants. Florida International University (FIU) and Bonefish & Tarpon Trust (BTT) conducted a […]
Pharmaceutical drugs have polluted the world’s rivers and pose “a global threat to environmental and human health,” according to a new study by the University of York. The most extensive global study to date found that among the most polluted rivers were those in Bolivia, Pakistan and Ethiopia, while rivers in the Amazon rainforest, Iceland […]
Manatees are majestic creatures, and their presence near Florida brings a lot of awe from locals and tourists alike. But worsening pollution from agricultural runoff, wastewater and other pollutants is causing one of their primary food sources — seagrass — to run scarce. By October 2021 alone, nearly 1,000 manatees have died from food scarcity. […]
By Tara Lohan Fish hooked on meth? It’s a catchy headline that made the rounds a few weeks ago, but it represents a serious and growing problem. Our rivers and streams have become a soup of hundreds of drugs — mostly pharmaceuticals — that come from the treated water released from wastewater facilities. Conventional wastewater […]
The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) announced Monday it is kicking off a new rulemaking process to pass stricter requirements for how coal power plants dispose of wastewater, undoing a major rollback implemented in the last year of the Trump administration. Wastewater pollution from coal plants is poured into nearby rivers and streams and often […]
With #PlasticFreeJuly upon us, there has been a necessary, global focus on curbing plastic pollution and other trash that comes from land and often ends up in the sea. Now, in partnership with Plastic Oceans International, EcoWatch is highlighting the dangers of another land-based source of ecological harm: runoff. According to the United States Geological […]
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