The Smithian

Water levels on the River Sava are expected to peak later, threatening the country's biggest power plant. It comes after the worst floods in the Balkans for decades left more than 35 dead and forced tens of thousands of people to flee their homes. In Bosnia-Hercegovina, landslides have buried houses and disturbed landmines laid during the war in the 1990s. The floods are also affecting Croatia. Three months' worth of rain fell on the region in just a few days, causing rivers to burst their banks and sweep into people's homes.

...it was a relief for scores of conservationists, government officials and anglers when two pieces of construction equipment methodically began dismantling the Veazie Dam this week. It is a decade-long, $60 million effort that, in combination with two other major river restoration projects on the Penobscot, will give 11 species of fish, including river herring and Atlantic salmon, better access to 1,000 miles of spawning habitat for the first time in two centuries.

...few places in America represent the urban trauma of the 1960s more than [Newark, New Jersey]. Deindustrialization, corruption, suburban flight and calamitous planning gutted its core, tore up neighborhoods...The...toxic environment was encapsulated in the desecration of the Passaic River, which borders Newark. It became a dumping ground for dioxin from the defunct Diamond Shamrock Chemicals Company, which manufactured Agent Orange.

a quiet upheaval is turning that river, polluted as it may be, into a front line of reclamation. It’s a common approach these days, from Seoul to Madrid to San Francisco: upgrading cities by revamping ravaged waterfronts.

Swollen rivers gushed into the old section of Passau in southeast Germany on Monday, as water rose in the city to levels not seen in more than five centuries.