environmental health
April 22, 2019 -
State regulators recently issued a new general permit for industrial hog farms, and it dashed the hopes of environmental advocates who say it represents a failure to address the unequal pollution burden borne by nonwhite communities. They're calling on the agency to take environmental justice into account in future permitting decisions.
April 12, 2019 -
North Carolina is now the third state in the South to order utilities to excavate all of their coal ash pits and move the toxic material to lined landfills. Duke Energy wants to charge its customers for the work, but some state lawmakers are trying to prevent that from happening. Meanwhile, the company is challenging the order.
September 28, 2018 -
As floodwaters receded, environmental watchdogs affiliated with the Waterkeeper Alliance took to airplanes and boats to document the pollution left in the storm's wake. Here's what they found.
September 7, 2018 -
More than eight years after BP's Deepwater Horizon disaster in the Gulf of Mexico, tens of thousands of sickened cleanup workers, first responders, and coastal residents are still awaiting financial compensation — and many may not ever receive it because of the way the settlement has been structured.
August 24, 2018 -
The plan to roll back Obama-era pollution regulations on coal-burning power plants would put vulnerable communities across the coal-dependent South disproportionately at risk for respiratory problems and premature death.
July 26, 2018 -
Vernon Haltom of West Virginia's Coal River Mountain Watch was among those who testified about coal's future before a congressional subcommittee this week. The testimony of Haltom — whose group is working to end mountaintop removal mining in Appalachia — details what boosting coal means for the communities where it's extracted.
May 4, 2018 -
The plaintiffs in the historic federal nuisance lawsuit against the hog industry's waste disposal practices in North Carolina could face complications in collecting the $50 million verdict because of an industry-promoted state law that limits punitive damages. Their attorneys are challenging the law's constitutionality.
