Agency to provide flexibility while protecting environment and public health

WASHINGTON (EPA) — The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) has released final guidance on Appalachian surface coal mining, designed to ensure more consistent, effective, and timely review of surface coal-mining permits under the Clean Water Act and other statutes.

New strategy promotes adoption of safe, affordable sanitation in the developing world

KIGALI, Rwanda -- The Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation announced July 19 the launch of a strategy to help bring safe, clean sanitation services to millions of poor people in the developing world.

The July 10 Washington Post had a review on three books about water, its importance and its future.

The article begins:

"Water is the ultimate renewable resource — which is why we are running out. Because it falls from the sky, constantly replenished and cleansed in a cycle of evaporation and precipitation, we regard it as free, a gift from God. It is never truly owned or consumed, only borrowed from nature. And so we squander it and defile it. Until, as we are increasingly finding, it is not there when we want it."