BREAKING: Concerned about methyl bromide, DEQ puts log fumigation permits on...
The NC Department of Environmental Quality today is recommending that the state regulate emissions of methyl bromide, a chemical used in log fumigation. As a result, DEQ has put on hold four pending...
View ArticleGo Backstage: How I got the Resource Institute story, plus a guide to...
The story did not start with a tip. It began only with curiosity. For kicks, one Friday afternoon I re-read the environmental portion of the state budget. On Page 132 of the 266-page document is...
View ArticleSmithfield loses its third hog nuisance case, jury awards plaintiffs $473...
See today’s story on NC Policy Watch about yesterday’s closing arguments in this case. A federal jury took just three hours to award six plaintiffs a total of $473 million in compensatory and punitive...
View ArticleDisorganized, unrealistic and ready to spend tax dollars: Jim Womack wants to...
Jim Womack must believe he’s playing with house money. The chairman of the NC Oil and Gas Commission, Womack yesterday proposed several expensive outlays of taxpayer funds that have no legislative...
View ArticleA first for NC, DEQ wants new rules on methyl bromide emissions — and they’re...
After receiving more than 3,000 comments about proposed log fumigation facilities in eastern North Carolina, state officials are asking the Environmental Management Commission to pass new rules on...
View ArticleEPA hosting key community forum on GenX, PFAS, PFOS in Fayetteville today;...
Policy Watch will live tweet the highlights of the daylong event @ncpolicywatch and @lisasorg . Seven top EPA officials. Three division directors from the Department of Environmental Quality, plus...
View ArticleFERC holding public hearings, accepting comment on pipeline in Rockingham,...
Although construction has stopped on the main trunk of the 303-mile Mountain Valley Pipeline, the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission is holding public hearings in North Carolina this week on the...
View ArticleScience Advisory Board: State’s reasoning was sound in determining health...
The state’s health advisory goal of 140 parts per trillion for GenX in drinking water is based on sound science, an advisory board concluded yesterday, while cautioning it doesn’t define a “boundary...
View ArticleCiting climate change, health and environmental justice, DEQ sends letter to...
New federal environmental regulations could cause the premature deaths of 14,000 people in the US by 2030, equivalent to 10 Manteos, four Wilkesboros or one Roanoke Rapids. The Environmental...
View ArticleHow to spend $30 million: DEQ announces proposal for first phase of VW...
Range Anxiety is real, especially in parts of North Carolina — such as Scotland Neck, Elizabethtown and Leasburg — that lack a public electric-car charging station. Now the North Carolina Department of...
View ArticleOpposition heats up against MVP Southgate pipeline project; comment by Sept. 10
In the late 1700s, when the Slade family acquired its farm in central Alamance County, the use of natural gas, the manufactured kind, anyway, in the US was still 25 years away. But in 2018, the...
View ArticleChemours hit with yet another lawsuit over GenX, fluorinated compounds...
Cape Fear River Watch, a nonprofit group in Wilmington, is suing Chemours in federal court over the company’s discharges and emissions of GenX and other fluorinated compounds. If a judge rules in favor...
View ArticleAlamance County Commissioners give a big thumbs down to Mountain Valley...
Alamance County Commissioners unanimously voted this morning to approve a resolution opposing the MVP Southgate, a controversial natural gas pipeline project planned for northwest-central North...
View ArticleAppellate court ruling could funnel Smithfield agreement funds away from...
Francis X. De Luca can’t sue the state of North Carolina over an 18-year-old Smithfield agreement, the NC Court of Appeals ruled yesterday, but the former head of the conservative...
View ArticleLawsuit tries to muzzle opponents of Durham charter school in environmentally...
Note: This is one of two legal cases involving the siting of Discovery Charter School. A summary of the second case will be posted tomorrow. A major developer of charter schools, Steve Hubrich claims...
View ArticleA double whammy: Dams that are high hazard and in poor condition
While Hurricane Florence could endanger animal waste lagoons, hazardous waste sites and other toxic repositories, there is another potential hazard to consider: Weak dams Of the 3,000 dams statewide,...
View ArticleThe week’s top stories on Policy Watch
1. The dirty half dozen: What you need to know about all six proposed constitutional amendments The 2018 midterm elections are upon us and North Carolina voters will soon pass judgment on, among many...
View ArticleHow to monitor nuclear reactors during Hurricane Florence (and in calmer times)
All of North Carolina’s four nuclear reactors lie in or near the path of Hurricane Florence, as the storm moves from east to west. While the plants were built to withstand storms of this severity,...
View ArticleIn Wilmington, slope on Sutton coal ash landfill fails, plus sewage spills...
This post has been updated with a statement from the state Department of Environmental Quality. Torrential rain from Hurricane Florence caused a slope to collapse at a coal ash landfill at Duke...
View ArticleDEQ: Chemours says it shut down operations before Hurricane Florence;...
The Chemours plant, responsible for discharging GenX and other fluorinated compounds into the Cape Fear River for at least 30 years, reportedly suspended its operations before Hurricane Florence hit,...
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