Under court settlement, no coal ash for Colon mine in Lee County
Coal ash will not be disposed of in a former clay mine in Lee County, according to a settlement between three environmental groups, Charah, Inc., and the NC Department of Environmental Quality. After a...
View ArticleCOVID-19 vaccine could be less effective in people with high PFAS levels in...
The COVID-19 vaccine could be less effective in people with high levels of perfluorinated compounds — PFAS — in their blood, several scientists announced today. High levels of PFAS exposure is known to...
View ArticleBreaking: DEQ’s Michael Regan is Biden’s nominee for EPA administrator
NC Department of Environmental Quality Secretary Michael Regan is the President-elect Joe Biden’s nominee for EPA administrator, according to multiple news sources. Policy Watch reported yesterday that...
View ArticleToothpaste goes back in the tube: Duke, Dominion propose restoration plan for...
Environmental restoration along the route of the Atlantic Coast Pipeline is scheduled to begin this year, including in North Carolina, according to federal filings by the utilities. Although Duke and...
View ArticleDEQ approves air permit for Align RNG biogas facility, but hog farms will...
The NC Department of Environmental Quality has approved a controversial air permit for a proposed biogas gathering and processing facility in Turkey, on the Sampson and Duplin county line. However,...
View ArticleSen. Berger announces appointments to Ag, Enviro committees, responsible for...
Norm Sanderson, Brent Jackson and Chuck Edwards will lead the Senate Agriculture, Energy and Environment Committee this year, Sen. Pro Tem Phil Berger announced today. The 14-member committee includes...
View ArticleState climatologists: 2020 in NC was “a very strange year,” portends more...
The mountains were snow-deprived. The nights were sweaty and hot. And at times, it seemed the rain would never stop. The year 2020 broke, or came close to breaking, several weather records in North...
View Article‘Millions of birds will die’: Last-minute Trump rule aids polluting industries
In July 2011, a pipeline owned by ExxonMobil burst near Laurel, Mont., dumping 42,000 gallons of crude oil into the nearby Yellowstone River. As federal officials reported the damage for weeks...
View ArticleAt least 14 sites at Camp Lejeune are likely to be contaminated with PFAS
Like most military bases, Camp Lejeune is a toxic mess. It is one of 130 current or former military installations on the EPA’s Superfund list that are contaminated with dozens, if not hundreds of...
View ArticleYour right to know: How to find Toxics Release Inventory data for your community
Welcome to the Rabbit Hole, otherwise known as the Toxics Release Inventory. This is a tutorial to accompany a brief story that provides an overview of pollution released into North Carolina’s...
View ArticleAfter unanimous vote, Vance County neighbors 1, debris landfill 0
Four months. Hundreds of pages of documents and maps and charts. A dozen hours of testimony, some of it heated. All of it had boiled down to the Jan. 14 meeting of the Vance County Board of Adjustment,...
View ArticleNew and alarming figures: Colonial Pipeline spilled 1.2 million gallons of...
The largest gasoline spill in North Carolina history just got bigger. Colonial Pipeline has released new figures, estimating at least 1.2 million gallons of gasoline spilled from a broken pipe in...
View ArticleBiden yanks Keystone XL permit in first-day order, citing climate change
In one of his first official acts after taking office, President Joe Biden revoked the federal permit for the Keystone XL crude oil pipeline that would have traversed eastern Montana on its way from...
View ArticleButtigieg puts greenhouse gas reduction at center of Biden transportation policy
Former South Bend mayor Pete Buttigieg offered an unapologetic defense of President Joe Biden’s vision for improved transportation and greenhouse gas reductions during a Senate hearing to consider...
View ArticleFederal judge to USFWS: Release captive red wolves into the wild to head off...
The U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service must develop a plan by March 1 to introduce captive red wolves into the officially designated Red Wolf Recovery Area in North Carolina, a federal court ruled last...
View ArticleChemours violated terms of consent order, DEQ cites company
This story has been updated with comments from Chemours. Chemours’s wastewater treatment at its Fayetteville Works plant failed to adequately remove toxic PFAS — perfluorinated compounds — allowing...
View ArticleBiden to pause new oil and gas leases on public lands in sweeping climate order
WASHINGTON—President Joe Biden plans to sign a host of executive orders on climate Wednesday that will put a hold on new oil and gas leases on federal property, place environmental justice in the...
View ArticleDemocratic state lawmakers ask DEQ to deny water quality permits for Align...
Thirty Democratic legislators sent a letter to the NC Department of Environmental Quality today asking the agency to deny water quality permits for farms who plan to participate in the controversial...
View ArticleDepartment of Interior delays last-minute Trump rule that would weaken bird...
The Interior Department is delaying a last-minute Trump administration rule that would have weakened a century-old law protecting migratory birds, Interior officials said Thursday. Two weeks before...
View ArticleNorth Carolina’s Regan approved by Senate environment panel as EPA chief
WASHINGTON—The U.S. Senate Environment and Public Works Committee voted Tuesday to move forward the nomination of Michael Regan to lead the EPA. Following that bipartisan 14-6 vote, the nomination of...
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