drinking water
September 15, 2022 -
Speaking in response to Jackson's latest drinking water crisis, Mississippi Gov. Tate Reeves (R) has said that privatization of the city's system is under consideration. But many U.S. communities that privatized their water reconsidered after encountering problems including shoddy maintenance and a lack of promised savings.
October 27, 2021 -
After being pressed for decades by environmental health advocates, the EPA recently announced a plan to regulate toxic PFAS chemicals widely used in consumer products, from non-stick cookware to dental floss. But the FDA still hasn't banned the cancer-causing substances from fast-food wrappers and containers, and Southern states have been reluctant to take action on their own.
April 1, 2016 -
North Carolina's carcinogen-contaminated drinking water near Duke Energy's coal ash dumps — and the political fight over what to do about it — should serve as a warning for problems to come in other historically coal-dependent states due to a lack of federal oversight for drinking water and coal ash disposal.
February 4, 2014 -
A stormwater pipe at a shuttered Duke Energy coal plant in North Carolina has sent thousands of tons of coal ash into the Dan River, which provides drinking water for downstream communities. Five years after another coal ash disaster in Tennessee led to promises for federal regulations, when will we finally see them enacted?
January 6, 2014 -
The oil and gas industry says fracking does not endanger groundwater supplies. But an Associated Press review of data from several states offers the latest evidence that the industry's claims are not true.
July 2, 2013 -
The N.C. commission charged with regulating fracking is protesting state lawmakers' effort to preempt its authority to require strong public disclosure rules for chemicals used in fracking for natural gas. Will North Carolina join other Southern states in adopting weak disclosure requirements?
November 1, 1987 -
This article originally appeared in Southern Exposure Vol. 15 No.