In 2015, a group of middle school students from Falmouth, Massachusetts, noticed a problem in their local waterways: plastic was everywhere.

Lead, arsenic, and other heavy metals are increasingly present in water systems around the world due to human activities, such as pesticide use and, more recently, the inadequate disposal of electronic waste. 

Professor Rob Hale of William & Mary’s Virginia Institute of Marine Science is lead author of a new “Grand Challenges” paper commissioned to mark the 100th anniversary of the American Geophysical Union, the world’s largest association of Earth and space scientists with more than 60,000 members in 137 countries.

As rain offers a welcome relief to fire-scorched Australia, concerns over flash floods and freshwater contamination cast a shadow on the joy.

Cornell researchers have found a new species of soil bacteria – which they named in memory of the Cornell professor who first discovered it – that is particularly adept at breaking down organic matter, including the cancer-causing chemicals that are released when coal, gas, oil and refuse are burned.

With the recent fracking boom causing low gas prices, fossil fuel companies are seeking other ways to bolster their profits — by making more plastic.

A world without phosphorous is a world without life. But phosphorous is a finite resource, so researchers are recovering it from sewage.

Is the water in your home actually safe, given that water utility companies in the U.S. aren’t required by law to monitor the water that specifically enters a building at its service line?

Many of the plastic containers labeled as recyclable in the United States may not actually be recyclable, according to a new report from Greenpeace.

New Australian technology that could fix some of the world’s biggest environmental pollution problems – oil spills, mercury pollution and fertiliser runoff – will soon be available to global markets following the signing of a landmark partnership with Flinders University.