Using the same devious mechanism that enables some bacteria to shrug off powerful antibiotics, scientists have developed solar-powered nanofilters that remove antibiotics from the water in lakes and rivers twice as efficiently as the best existing technology. Their report appears in ACS' journal Nano Letters.

The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency must meet a court-ordered deadline to issue regulations that clean up power plant water pollution, the U.S. Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia ruled today. The decision turns back an attempt by the utility industry to avoid the financial and operational burdens of the regulations.

Power producers must curb the tainted water they discharge into waterways under a proposal the Environmental Protection Agency issued Friday, the latest in a series of rules aimed at utilities that burn coal. The EPA proposed four options for regulating the disposal of toxic waste from power plants, which are the top source of pollutants in streams, rivers and other waters.

New research, just published, details how University of Cincinnati researchers have developed and tested a solar-powered nano filter that is able to remove harmful carcinogens and antibiotics from water sources -- lakes and rivers -- at a significantly higher rate than the currently used filtering technology made of activated carbon.

Pharmaceuticals commonly found in the environment are found in streams, with unknown impacts on aquatic life and water quality. So reports a new Ecological Applications paper, which highlights the ecological cost of pharmaceutical waste and the need for more research into environmental impacts.

Nitrates are increasing even in some pristine forest streams in the mountain West and the South, while declining in the Pacific Northwest, in the Northeast, and in Puerto Rico, according to a new study led by Oregon State University researchers. The long-term data from the Forest Service Experimental Forest and Range network, a system of 80 locations across the country.

The Colorado Oil and Gas Conservation Commission (COGCC) on Monday voted 8-1 to raise the minimum distance between wells and homes as well as other buildings to at least 500 feet statewide. The reason for the increased setback, among other issues (e.g., increases in dust, noise, etc.), were water contamination and quality issues.

U.S. Sen. Michael Bennet picked up a jar of black water taken from the Poudre River just after the High Park Fire and stressed the need for federal money to help protect the river from a repeat every time it rains.

Concentrations of metals in the upper Animas River and its main tributaries, Cement and Mineral creeks, pose problems for invertebrates, fish and the animals that prey on them, an Environmental Protection Agency study finds. The study is a draft, and the conclusions are conservative, the report says.