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A large eastern Iowa facility that makes ketchup and other condiments failed for more than two years to monitor contaminants in the more than 1 million gallons of untreated wastewater it discharged into a creek each day, according to the Iowa Department of Natural Resources.

Mark Jenkins was visiting Morro Bay from Ventura County on Monday hoping his family could experience the idyllic Central Coast beach before it became “a zoo” packed with summertime crowds. Unfortunately, when he arrived, the water already resembled a zoo’s bathroom.

A recent sewage spill into North Lake Tahoe has had a significant impact on the community, leading to the closure of two popular beaches and the temporary shutdown of local businesses. The incident occurred in Carnelian Bay, where an 85,000-gallon spill of raw sewage was caused by a private contractor who accidentally drilled through the main sewer export pipeline while installing a lighted crosswalk on Highway 28.

An estimated 15,000 gallons of sewage spilled into a creek this weekend, closing Venice and Dockweiler State Beaches, officials said. But on Tuesday morning, locals stuck to their beach routines.

Pharmaceutical waste, whether it’s legal or illegal, is an understudied problem for wildlife in oceans, rivers, and lakes. Scientists have also detected traces of coke and other illegal drugs near large cities such as London and off Florida’s coast.

In a case that could limit the authority of federal and state agencies to regulate water pollution, San Francisco is arguing to the Supreme Court that it is responsible only for the pollutants its sewage-treatment plants discharge into the ocean, and not for the quality of the waters themselves.

A broken pipe caused more than a hundred gallons of waste to spill into the ocean off Pismo Beach. It’s the second sewage spill to happen in the area in July. About 120 gallons of sewage spilled onto the street and into a storm drain connected to the Pacific Ocean. According to city officials, the pipe possibly broke because it was old and could not handle pressure.

The amount of contaminated water laced with raw sewage that is flowing across the U.S.-Mexico border into San Diego County exceeded 44 billion gallons in 2023, the most on record in the last quarter-century, according to a new report.

City council's water, waste and environment committee voted Thursday to award Red River Biosolids Partners, a consortium of construction firms, a $95-million contract to design and develop the next phase of upgrades at the North End Water Pollution Control Centre, the largest of Winnipeg's three sewage treatment plants.

A team of international researchers is calling for urgent action as the world becomes increasingly reliant on medications that end up in rivers and lakes, where they pose a serious threat to fish and other aquatic species.

On Wednesday, environmental nonprofit Heal the Bay released its 34th annual Beach Report Card, assigning grades to approximately 700 beaches along the Pacific Coast based on levels of bacterial pollution. Lower grades mean a greater chance of getting beachgoers sick, and Santa Monica’s premier beach location was given an unfortunate grade.

A dozen beaches in Southern California made the nonprofit's 'Honor Roll,' more than last year. But the report shows how swimming spots are under threat from storm runoff.

Each day, millions of gallons of sewage cascade through a canyon and into the Pacific Ocean just south of the U.S.-Mexican border. As any surfer in San Diego knows, summer swells that come from the south will push the toxic brew north.

This week, large areas of Ontario experienced severe flooding that caused widespread power outages, water damages and disruption. Severe rainfall events are not new, but they are becoming more frequent and costly due to human-caused climate change.

In 2022, Dutch sewage treatment plants processed 1.81 billion cubic metres of sewage water, the equivalent of more than 70 thousand Olympic-sized swimming pools filled with water. These treatment plants removed more nitrogen and phosphorous from wastewater than in the previous year.

I'm a goggles-on, face-underwater kind of swimmer, yet these days I hesitate before I dip my head beneath the surface of the sea. In recent years, increasingly frequent spills have released millions of hours-worth of untreated sewage into UK rivers and coastal water. The immediate health risks are numerous: exposure can lead to acute sickness, ear infections or a tummy upset. But that's not all – there's another potential health hazard lurking in those polluted waters.

As effluent from sewage works and agricultural pollution flow freely into rivers, researchers and local citizens are urgently seeking to clean up the UK's waterways. New wildlife-rich wetlands could be an answer.

Water companies could face a spate of legal challenges by people and businesses affected by sewage pollution after a ruling that United Utilities could be sued by a private company for damage caused by the dumping of human waste.

Environmentalists warn that recent sewage spills off the coast of San Luis Obispo County could have lasting effects on local marine life.

Worldwide, agriculture accounts for roughly 70% of freshwater withdrawals, followed by industry (just under 20%) and domestic (or municipal) uses (about 12%).

Nutrient pollution from wastewater endangers coastal and marine ecosystems and contributes to health risks in many small islands in the Wider Caribbean Region. Identifying promising intervention points for management requires understanding the flows of wastewater and contained nutrients.

The United Nations System-wide Strategy for Water and Sanitation (SWS) unites the United Nations system’s work towards a world with accessible, available and sustainably managed water and sanitation for all people and the planet. It provides a system-wide approach for United Nations entities to work collaboratively on water and sanitation – not as a sector in a “silo”, but holistically to address the interrelated cross-sectoral aspects of water and sanitation.

The American Society of Civil Engineers (ASCE) partnered with the Value of Water Campaign to commission this study. It is part of ASCE’s series of economic studies (Failureto Act and Bridging the Gap), which began in 2011. This report builds on the Value of Water Campaign’s 2020 The Economic Benefits of Investing in Water Infrastructure study and considers the 20-year economic impacts of continuing infrastructure investment at Infrastructure Investment and Jobs Act (IIJA) spending levels or reverting to pre-IIJA funding once authorized spending is complete.

Safe and clean water is essential for life on Earth, productive societies and resilient economies. Water pollution threatens lakes, rivers and oceans and our soils and groundwater sources. Heavy metals and toxic chemicals are degrading the quality of water.

A huge citizen testing blitz of rivers across Britain this summer has found 75% are in poor ecological health as a result of pollution from water companies and agricultural runoff.

7,600 gallons of sewage spilled into Morro Bay Harbor on Sunday. The San Luis Obispo County Public Health Department reported that a broken sewage line at The Inn at Morro Bay caused the spill.

In a setback to efforts to conserve 30 percent of the ocean by 2030, a third of the world’s largest MPAs allow destructive practices like mining and commercial fishing, while others are “paper parks” with no formal conservation measures.

UK holidaymakers are being told to avoid and not swim at 48 beaches in Spain due to sewage pollution. Spanish environmental campaign group Ecologists in Action has named and shamed the country’s ‘black flag beaches’ that are the worst for problems including chemical pollution, marine waste, over-development and sewage discharges.

Every major English water company has reported data suggesting they’ve discharged raw sewage when the weather is dry – a practice which is potentially illegal.BBC News has analysed spills data from nine firms, which suggests sewage may have been discharged nearly 6,000 times when it had not been raining in 2022 - including during the country’s record heatwave.

The Port of Morrow has again been fined for violating a permit that outlines how it can apply nitrogen-rich wastewater to farmland in eastern Oregon.

The advisory was issued Friday after a break at the Crotonville Pump Station in Ossining accidentally released an estimated 1 million gallons of partially treated sewage into the Croton River, which flows into the Hudson.

A recent county report shows dozens of shops and restaurants in South Bay are suffering from the lack of tourism, with some being forced to close their doors for good. Business owners say it has created a financial disaster for them and they need tourists to come back.

Current wastewater management practices underutilize wastewater as a valuable source of water, energy, and essential plant nutrients. A new paradigm shift is needed, one that integrates the water-energy-food nexus into wastewater management. Decentralized wastewater management has the power to redefine not only the urban water cycle but also reshape society towards a more economic and environmentally sustainable future.

The Biden Administration is turning the tide on ocean climate action, with the United States positioned like never before to leverage the ocean as a powerful source of climate solutions. Ocean climate action policy in the United States is advancing across a wide array of topics with a renewed commitment to environmental justice and public engagement. With an ambitious Administration, strong ocean climate leadership in Congress, and a relentless nationwide network of ocean advocates, our country is ushering in a new era of ocean climate action.

On the worst days, when the backyard would flood and the toilet would gurgle and the smell of sewage hung thick in the air, Monica Arenas would flee to her mother-in-law’s home to use the bathroom or wash laundry.

The City of Temple have announced another large sewage overflow following this week's storms.

The city’s Department of Environmental Services responded to a wastewater spill in Palolo on Thursday morning. It happened near the intersection of Kaʻau Street and Palolo Avenue. ENV crews said they were notified of the spill just after 9:10 a.m. Workers were able to stop the spill around 10:30 a.m.

Water companies are currently allowed to pour tonnes of sewage into our waters every day. Zoologist and campaigner Sienna Somers looks at the animals suffering because of sewage.

The health of San Francisco Bay waters has prompted the state and federal government to take legal action, with the Environmental Protection Agency and the state of California suing the city of San Francisco over the amount of sewage being dumped into the bay.

Water is an essential ingredient for life on Earth – and possibly beyond. For modern humans, water represents a means to hydrate, wash, cook, clean and even to dispose of our waste. But our activities are not without consequences. Every headline about pollutants like microplastics and forever chemicals (namely per- and polyfluoroalkyl substances) is a daunting reminder that our presence on this planet has a direct impact on the quality of its water.

Almost all the UK's waterways are polluted. Join our call for a new law to punish polluters, and keep safe by learning how to spot pollution in your river.

Millions of litres of raw sewage were illegally pumped into one of England's most famous lakes after a fault, the BBC can reveal. United Utilities failed to stop the illegal pollution of Windermere, in the Lake District, for 10 hours in February and did not report the incident to the Environment Agency until 13 hours after it started.

Cruise ships are jeopardizing endangered southern resident killer whales by dumping billions of litres of polluted wastewater into the ocean, new federal government documents reveal.

Millions of litres of untreated sewage was illegally discharged into Lake Windermere, according to a report, which only adds to concerns about the levels of pollution in British waters.

A clean river campaigner has warned of a serious risk someone will die from swimming in English rivers and seas because of the level of E coli from water pollution.

Under the Surface is a cross-border, collaborative data project about a crisis unfolding beneath our feet. Europe’s groundwater is disappearing and what remains is becoming increasingly polluted. A group of journalists from across Europe worked to collect, analyse and present information about the state of the most important resource in life: water. The warning signs are already here. Europe has an emerging problem that will soon affect us all.

Briana Franco envisioned a healthy, fun lifestyle for her family when she moved to Imperial Beach four years ago. It hasn’t gone that way. Her 5-year-old daughter has had a chronic cough since last year that seems to go away when they leave town. Her one-year-old son was on a ventilator for nine days because of respiratory issues, she said. And her air purifier beeps almost every night from her apartment near where untreated wastewater flows over from Tijuana, signifying poor air quality.

A manhole spewed out 1,200 gallons of raw sewage before the overflow was halted Saturday evening.

Often, we think of nutrients as a good thing. We want nutrient-rich foods, and we may add nutrients like nitrogen or phosphorus to our gardens to help plants grow. Unfortunately, what’s good for our gardens, is a big problem for Puget Sound. Puget Sound is receiving too many nutrients, so much so that it is polluted.

The federal and state governments accused San Francisco on Wednesday of discharging huge amounts of untreated wastewater and sewage into the bay and the ocean for many years, violating environmental laws and endangering beachgoers and aquatic life.

Human sewage can carry diseases and viruses like e.coli and norovirus, although molluscs are then soaked in sterile tanks so they can usually purify themselves before they are sold.

Tyson Foods dumped millions of pounds of toxic pollutants directly into American rivers and lakes over the last five years, threatening critical ecosystems, endangering wildlife and human health, a new investigation reveals.

They are tools the two South County departments have rolled out independently to protect themselves from daily exposure to polluted, sewage-tainted waters. No safety standards exist for lifeguards who come into contact with contaminated water while trying to save lives. That’s because no other agency in the country experiences this issue, field experts say.

The Withlacoochee River WPCP Secondary Equalization Basin overflowed due to heavy rains, resulting in a massive sewage spill.

The two communities divided by the U.S.-Mexico border have long been connected by the same environmental crisis plaguing their shared Pacific Ocean

A major sewage spill along the Albert River in Australia is being labeled the Gold Coast's worst environmental disaster.

The results of a test into the water quality of the River Thames are "devastating", a wild swimmer has said. Bangor University analysis, commissioned by television naturalist Steve Backshall, recently found high levels of potentially harmful bacteria in the river.

Whistleblowers say UK water companies are knowingly failing to treat legally required amounts of sewage, and that some treatment works are manipulating wastewater systems to divert raw sewage away from the works and into rivers and seas.

The California coast is one of the regions of the world where ocean acidification is occurring the fastest. And researchers have found that local sources of pollution are part of the problem.

The Biden administration on Wednesday finalized strict limits on certain so-called “forever chemicals” in drinking water that will require utilities to reduce them to the lowest level they can be reliably measured. Officials say this will reduce exposure for 100 million people and help prevent thousands of illnesses, including cancers.

When rain comes down in some parts of Charleston, S.C., sewage comes up. In the neighborhood of West Ashley, storms trigger waste overflows so often into a pond near Nell Postell’s home that she has a wet-weather routine based on forecasts: she buys surgical masks, clears her garden and then listens for the sewage to “gush”: her signal to phone local authorities.

Environmental advocates threaten to sue within weeks if Charleston Water does not present a plan to prevent hundreds of wastewater overflows.

The Port of San Diego has declared a state of emergency linked to the ongoing Tijuana River Valley crisis, according to a news release Wednesday. The port joins the cities of Imperial Beach and San Diego as well as the County of San Diego, which have issued similar actions.

Sewage was dumped into rivers, lakes and on beaches designated 'safe to bathe in' 86 times a day on average in 2023, analysis of official data has suggested.

The issue of sewage in coastal areas is complex, influenced by factors like inadequate sewage systems, septic tanks, industrial and agricultural runoff, and natural processes like coastal erosion, further complicated by oceanic dynamics like tides and currents. A global statistic reveals that over 80 % of sewage enters the environment without treatment, contributing significantly to nitrogen pollution in coastal ecosystems.

This work aims to bring the treatment of highly polluted wastewater to the concept of zero liquid discharge, using landfill leachate as a representative example. Achieving this goal involves removing pollution due to organic matter and/or heavy metals and recovering the nutrients contained in the effluent.

The number of devices not working properly has fuelled concerns the scale of the sewage scandal is far bigger than previously thought, further ramping up pressure on the utility companies and government.

In India, around 72,000 million litres per day (MLD) of wastewater is generated, but the treatment capacity is only 31,841 MLD, and the utilisation capacity is 20,236 MLD. This raises the question of where the remaining sewage is going.

Hawaii has 83,000 cesspools that inject 52 million gallons of untreated sewage into the ground and our groundwater each day. That’s like a daily massive sewage spill, polluting our waters and threatening human health and our environment.

Coronado High School students from the Stop the Sewage Club, Emerald Keepers Club, and Junior Optimist Club planned and executed a Stop the Sewage Protest at Central Beach in Coronado, on the afternoon of Thursday, March 28.

Concern is growing over levels of sewage pollution in London’s River Thames after E. coli bacteria was discovered ahead of this weekend’s historic Oxford v. Cambridge boat race.

The county public health department is stepping up its public reporting on gastrointestinal illness in the South Bay amid growing public calls for a stronger focus on sewage-related suffering connected to the Tijuana River.

Sewage spills into England's rivers and seas by water companies more than doubled last year. According to the Environment Agency there were 3.6 million hours of spills compared to 1.75 million hours in 2022.

Samples taken from White Rock Lake showed elevated levels of E. coli after 1.5 million gallons of raw sewage spilled into water from Plano, according to a memorandum from the city of Dallas.

The 2024 edition of the United Nations World Water Development Report (UN WWDR)calls attention to the complex and interlinked relationships between water, prosperity and peace, describing how progress in one dimension can have positive, often essential, repercussions on the others.

Years after a massive spill at a Los Angeles water treatment facility dumped millions of gallons of raw sewage into the Pacific, officials with the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency have ordered several improvements at the plant to help prevent another such disaster, even when facing more intense storms from a changing climate.

The United Nations World Water Development Report 2024, published by UNESCO on behalf of UN-Water, highlights that tensions over water are exacerbating conflicts worldwide. To preserve peace, States must boost international cooperation and transboundary agreements.

At least 50 per cent of the planet’s population – 4 billion people – deal with water shortfalls at least one month of the year. By 2025, 1.8 billion people are likely to face what the Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO) calls “absolute water scarcity.”

At least 721 water body segments in Iowa do not meet water quality standards for recreation, public water supplies and the protection of aquatic life, according to the state Department of Natural Resources.

On 18 March 2024, policymakers, industry leaders and scientists will gather in Geneva, Switzerland, for the Global Methane Forum. The purpose is to take stock of progress on methane mitigation strategies and to mobilize ambitious action, in line with the Global Methane Pledge.

As a population and industrial agglomeration area, population expansion and industrial development had increased the amount of sewage into urban rivers, which had hindered the development of cities.

A mechanical failure at a Plano water station spilled more than 1.5 million gallons of untreated waste into White Rock Creek before it was repaired Saturday.

San Francisco Baykeeper said it is taking legal action against the San Francisco Public Utilities Commission and the city after sewage and trash-filled runoff flowed into the bay during heavy rainstorms. The local nonprofit watchdog organization said its investigation found hundreds of federal Clean Water Act violations over the last five winters.

Thought to be in use in China since the sixth century, inventor Joseph C. Gayetty patented the first U.S. commercial “medicated paper” in the 1850s. Since then, demand has soared in many places, bolstered by rising population, urbanization, shifts in demographics, changing hygiene practices, and lifestyle choices influenced by advertising.

New legal action could put an end to the practice of spreading toxic sewage sludge on US cropland as a cheap alternative to fertilizer, and force America to rethink how it disposes of its industrial and human waste.

Most ocean pollution comes from land-based human activity, via stormwater run-off from cities and towns, ineffective waste management, agriculture, manufacturing, mining and the chemicals supply chain. Despite its far-reaching consequences, more comprehensive data are needed to improve our ability to address ocean pollution effectively.

On behalf of Coosa River Basin Initiative, the Southern Environmental Law Center filed a lawsuit against the city of Calhoun in Federal District Court for violating federal law and allowing harmful pollutants in drinking water.

Water bubbles up in streets, pooling in neighborhoods for weeks or months. Homes burn to the ground if firefighters can’t draw enough water from hydrants. Utility crews struggle to fix broken pipes while water flows through shut-off valves that don’t work.

Today, the Southern Environmental Law Center, on behalf of Charleston Waterkeeper, warned Charleston Water System that the groups plan to file a lawsuit unless longstanding sewage overflow problems are addressed. Significant sewage spills are polluting Charleston’s waterways, putting Charleston residents at risk, and violating the federal Clean Water Act.

Most of the UK’s beachgoers could be swimming in dirty waters mixed with sewage due to outdated water forecasting methods, a new study has found.

The cause of Santa Barbara County’s biggest offshore sewage spill in recent memory — north of one million gallons — remains the subject of an ongoing investigation, the county supervisors were told in an informational briefing this Tuesday morning.

The ongoing water crisis in Jackson, MS, is about the lack of access to clean water and the way a community’s health and wellbeing are impacted when this vital resource is unavailable, but there are other crucial factors at play. The water crisis in Jackson is also part of a larger set of interconnected injustices that reveal the complexity of environmental racism.

The Goleta West Sanitary District revealed Tuesday that its massive sewage spill started on Feb. 16, six days before county health officials closed nearby beaches and notified the public.

Processed sewage sludge from a Bristol, Tenn. wastewater plant contains among the highest levels of so-called forever chemical contamination detected in the U.S., according to a report released today by Sierra Club Tennessee.

Hopefully they take care of it as soon as possible and that nothing serious happens to the people in the community,' resident Stanley Jean says

Damaged Force Main Sewer Line Near Santa Barbara Airport Releases Around Half a Million Gallons of Untreated Sewage into Goleta Slough

Next to a block of new high-rises in Belgrade's upscale Waterfront neighbourhood, a foul-smelling stream spews sewage directly into the Sava River, one of scores of outlets polluting the city's waters.

The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency announced this week it will provide $50 million to Hawaiʻi for upgrades to drinking water and other clean water infrastructure projects.

Stricken by drought and depleted by upstream dams, Iraq's once mighty rivers the Tigris and Euphrates are suffocating under pollutants from sewage to medical waste.

In a small Maine town, residents face the lingering effects of sewage sludge and wastewater contamination, raising concerns about soil and water safety.