Fish called menhaden apparently don’t do a lot to help cleanse the Chesapeake Bay, a new study says.

Governments can aid the Chesapeake Bay and the economy by spending more to help farmers pollute less, a University of Virginia study says.

Some people seem to think this winter’s snows prove that global warming is a bunch of hot air. They are wrong, the experts say.

The discovery of “numerous” discrepancies in a draft biosolids permit has prompted Campbell County to ask the Department of Environmental Quality to reject the application from further consideration until a thorough review is done by the agency and the company seeking permission.

Experts have varying opinions on the environmental impact of the ongoing melting of the Charlottesville region’s record amount of snowfall this season.

Sweet Briar College had a choice when it started a new construction project: It could allow rain to drain through traditional methods, or it could try something different.

Virginia Attorney General Ken Cuccinelli turned up the heat on global warming yesterday.

Despite all that snow on the ground, the season will soon turn to the affairs of the birds and the bees.

A light breeze sends a low roar through bare winter branches and geese a quarter of a mile away can be heard splashing down on part of a 1,240-acre swath in the middle of Rustburg. There are no sounds of humanity, other than those who live here.

The Environmental Protection Agency announced yesterday new plans to crack down on Chesapeake Bay pollution.

The sea-dwelling ancestors of modern-day mammals, reptiles and birds emerged from the water millions of years earlier than previously believed, according to new research published Wednesday.

NORFOLK — As in most environmental reports, there is good news and bad news about the state of the James River in 2009.

An effort that asked residents to switch to energy-efficient light bulbs has paid off for Campbell County as the National Association of Counties named it a winner in the group’s Energy Star Campaign contest.

For the first time since the Department of Environmental Quality took over managing biosolids in 2008, the agency is proposing significant new rules that were approved for public comment Monday by the State Water Control Board.

A state panel adopted regulations today that make Virginia’s storm-water controls tougher—but not as tough as envisioned two months ago.

Officials tell The Associated Press that the Environmental Protection Agency has concluded greenhouse gases are endangering people’s health and must be regulated.

The governors of Virginia and Maryland are asking the federal government for a big increase in funding to restore the Chesapeake Bay.

STONY CREEK — A toothy, blood-sucking fish attached itself to Pete Sturke’s hand the other day.

Establishing a statewide benchmark in erosion and sediment control at the local level was a fundamental step to changing what McCutcheon and some local inspectors call a culture of resistance among developers to adhering to erosion control regulations.

The state Department of Conservation and Recreation this past summer completed a five-year, locality-by-locality review of erosion and sedimentation programs. Most local programs statewide did not pass their reviews, including all but one locality in the Lynchburg area, where major changes were ordered to key parts of the programs.

A crack of thunder on a July evening can be a nightmarish sound to a developer or contractor.

Think of them as dirt cops. They are responsible for making sure most any kind of construction work — from porch additions to shopping centers — adheres to erosion and sediment-control measures.

In Lynchburg, the thousands of drivers who each day travel Lakeside Drive, one of the city’s main thoroughfares, have a front-row seat to the damage wrought by increasing sedimentation.

A year ago, ducks and geese stopped coming to a small pond nestled between two hills off Link Road. The water, once clear and greenish-blue, has become cloudy and reddish orange.

Mud clogs our streams and rivers. While state and local officials can’t pinpoint the exact sources or amount of the sediment pouring into the streams, there is little question that runoff from developments large and small is a key factor.

Are cramped chickens crazy chickens? Researchers are trying to answer that question through several studies that intend to take emotions out of an angry debate between animal welfare groups and producers.

BIG STONE GAP, Va. – A raucous crowd arrived Thursday for a public hearing on the future of permits allowing surface mine waste to be dumped into streams.

In September 2007, biologists joined forces with the Boxley Materials Company to build a new wetland outside the range of quarry expansion to give salamanders a place to reproduce.

A state panel adopted rules this afternoon designed to reduce the amount of pollution that rains wash from new office parks and other developed areas.

The number of poor air-quality days in Virginia dropped from 76 in 1999 to three in 2009, according to the Virginia Department of Environmental Quality.