oil and gas drilling

September 28, 2012 - The U.S. Geological Survey verifies earlier EPA findings that fracking for natural gas contaminated groundwater in rural Wyoming.

September 24, 2012 - As the boom in oil and gas drilling sends a surge of waste into underground injection wells, safeguards for disposing of these materials are sometimes being ignored or circumvented.

September 7, 2012 - So far, 93 oil industry accidents have been reported in Louisiana in the wake of Hurricane Isaac, releasing millions of pounds of toxic pollution into the environment. Watchdogs say the incidents point to the industry's chronic failure to prepare for entirely predictable problems.

September 6, 2012 - The Department of Justice has filed a memorandum with the judge in the BP lawsuit blasting the company for making misleading claims about its responsibility and the ongoing damage it's caused to the environment. BP is also facing fire for misleading claims from Alabama and from institutional investors.

September 4, 2012 - The Gulf Restoration Network has documented an oil spill at a Conoco Phillips refinery and a coal spill from a major port on the Mississippi River. Pollution from the spills appears to be contaminating nearby communities, farmlands and wetlands.

August 22, 2012 - Tests find low levels of health-damaging pollutants including radioactive elements in and around the Texas Brine sinkhole in Bayou Corne, La. -- but environmental advocates say the potential cumulative health impacts justify continued monitoring.

August 14, 2012 - After coming under fire for releasing what it touted as an independent study of fracking's environmental risks that was in fact led by a director of a fracking company, the school appoints a panel to investigate -- and it's chaired by a former director of a gas giant whose fracking operations have been blamed for contaminating groundwater.

August 14, 2012 - Local officials in Assumption Parish, La. are upset that they weren't warned by state and corporate officials that a salt mine where a massive sinkhole recently appeared was used for the disposal of radioactive waste from oil and gas drilling.