Background Articles

The Hokksund family in Drammen, Norway, has experienced flooding in their living room for the second time and may not be able to return home until next year due to ongoing flooding in the area.

– Han har hatt helt utrolig flaks, sier mor Cecilie etter at sønnen ble dratt gjennom et over 200 meter langt rør med flomvann.

Due to recent flooding, FEMA assessors will work with state, local and tribal officials to determine if federal aid is warranted with flood and erosion damage.

The most-expensive project in the nationwide initiative is $25 million for Alaska to replace a dozen culvert sites along the Parks Highway.

“We started seeing structural timber,” one resident said. “And then I was like, ‘Oh, my God. That’s from houses upstream.'”

For countless US veterans, the Army’s mismanagement and careless disposal of hazardous substances since the early years of the Cold War have been an enduring source of debilitating and fatal consequences. Notorious instances such as the pervasive contamination at Camp Lejeune, where toxins leached into groundwater for over 30 years.

This rural part of the island of Oahu is not connected to city sewers — and waste from toilets, sinks and showers is mostly collected in hundreds of pits called cesspools. Rising seas are also pushing groundwater closer to the surface, allowing cesspool effluent to mix with the water table and flow into the ocean.

Tenants in the Forest Park trailer court say they have few, if any, affordable options. Some officials see a warning sign of a worsening housing crisis to come.

State officials say Unalakleet will see work to improve conditions on its water system in the near future.

Engineers struggled to keep snow geese away from Montana’s deadly Superfund site, but ecologists have a new plan.

The region of Catalonia, northeastern Spain, is in its worst drought since measurements began. The sheep reservoir supplies water to the city of Barcelona.

Atmospheric river boosted California's snowpack, especially in Central and Southern Sierra. Now the levels are record level creating safety issues such as roofs collapsing and helping with drought conditions across the western states.

This weekend marks the third anniversary of the World Health Organization’s declaration of the global pandemic — and Juneau’s wastewater is awash with COVID. 

At times, the water level in the river Skjoma in Narvik is so low that the salmon freezes to death. But Statkraft has refused to release more water into the watercourse. Now the NVE intervenes.

Bristol Bay will receive 13 million in Federal Funding to help with projects such as safe drinking water.

Warming soils beneath Utqiagvik are triggering erosion that threatens homes, infrastructure and cultural resources. The North Slope has seen some of the fastest changes in coastal erosion in the nation.

Dozens of once crystal-clear streams and rivers in Arctic Alaska are now running bright orange and cloudy, and, in some cases, they may be becoming more acidic. This otherwise undeveloped landscape now looks as if an industrial mine has been in operation for decades, and scientists want to know why.

By Seth Borenstein | The Associated Press FILE - A kayaker paddles in Lake Oroville as water levels remain low due to continuing drought conditions in

The dam altered the subsistence gathering patterns of the Tagish Kwan, the Daḵká Kwa’an and the Kwanlin Dün people. Residences, cabins and fish camps along the Whitehorse rapids were dismantled, gatherings at M’Clintock stopped, and many people dispersed to Fish Lake and Whitehorse.

Scientists have documented a recent population explosion of beavers on the Baldwin Peninsula near Kotzebue.