Under van der Vaart, DEQ legal staff flourished, while number of scientists,...
For attorneys working at the NC Department of Environmental Quality, the last four years were like living in the land of milk and honey. Rapid promotions, new positions, job security. For DEQ...
View ArticleSenator Berger names environment/agriculture committee
Sen. Phil Berger named 17 lawmakers — 13 Republicans and four Democrats — to the committee on agricultural, environment and natural resources today. Brent Jackson and Andrew Brock are the best-known...
View ArticleDuke Energy unveils payment, water plans for property owners with private wells
Duke Energy will offer to pay $5,000, plus other stipends to property owners whose wells are within a half-mile of coal ash basins, the utility announced late this afternoon. Duke...
View ArticleThe toxics in the water at Camp Lejeune can be found throughout North Carolina
There have been at least six major wars and nine smaller U.S. invasions since the drinking water became contaminated at Camp Lejeune in Jacksonville. Yet the cancer-causing contaminants are not limited...
View ArticleHouse Speaker Tim Moore names committee leaders, some with dubious...
House Speaker Tim Moore announced his appointments for committee chairs today, the people in charge of herding the membership and their bills. All of the top posts for the environmental and agriculture...
View ArticleAmount of toxics released into air declines, but NC’s water is in trouble
Breathe deeply — well, not too deeply. But swim cautiously because the water is worse than the air. The amount of toxic pollutants that industry emitted into North Carolina’s air decreased...
View ArticleGov. Cooper names Susi Hamilton, Reid Wilson to lead Department of Natural...
State Rep. Susi Hamilton, a four-term House member from Wilmington, is Gov. Roy Cooper’s pick for Secretary of Natural and Cultural Resources. Reid Wilson, executive director of Conservation Trust for...
View ArticleNC Policy Collaboratory: Solid science, but legislature’s timeline rushes...
The NC Policy Collaboratory has an enviable challenge, but a challenge nonetheless: How to spend more than $200,000 in a hurry. Only six months old, the environmental think tank at UNC is charged with...
View ArticleCould you lead the EPA better than Scott Pruitt? Take the quiz and find out!
Last week, Scott Pruitt, President Donald Trump’s nominee to lead the Environmental Protection Agency, testified before the Senate Environment and Public Works Committee. Currently the attorney general...
View ArticleDay 4 of the Trump presidency: CDC suddenly cancels climate change summit
Just three weeks before a major conference on climate change and public health, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention abruptly canceled the event without explanation. The three-day event was...
View ArticleDay 5 of the Trump administration: Freezing EPA grants and contracts could...
This is a developing story. NCPW will publish updates as they become available. The Trump administration has frozen the EPA’s grants and contracts, which could halt or stall dozens of key...
View ArticleDay 6: Trump expedites Atlantic Coast Pipeline among 50 priority projects
The Atlantic Coast Pipeline, often referred to as the Dakota Access Pipeline of the east because of its routing through Native American lands in North Carolina, is on the fast-track to approval. Today...
View ArticlePrivate company wants to build two new coal ash landfills, six ponds in...
This is the approximate location for two proposed coal ash landfills. They could be built on 804 acres between High Bridge and Tower roads in Northampton County. The millions of tons of coal ash in...
View ArticleWhile more money needed for chemical research, Trump sets out to slash EPA...
As a planet, we are awash in 10s of millions of synthetic chemicals: They are infused in hormones and perfumes, weed killers and wood turpentine, flame retardants and freon. These synthetics are...
View ArticleTrump appoints coal lobbyist to Justice Department to prosecute environmental...
A division of the U.S. Justice Department that prosecuted Duke Energy over the Dan River coal ash spill is now being run by a former lobbyist for the coal industry. President Trump appointed Jeffrey H....
View ArticleNC DEQ Secretary Regan: “I want to create an open and inclusive agency”
Michael Regan hugs trees. But the presumptive secretary for the Department of Environmental Quality also shakes hands with business executives, who commonly chafe at the regulations that keep those...
View ArticleToday in Trumpland: Dems boycott Pruitt nomination for EPA + UNC panel deals...
Senate Democrats boycotted a final committee meeting on EPA nominee Scott Pruitt today, stalling a vote on the controversial attorney general of Oklahoma. In addition to his deep ties to the fossil...
View ArticleUS Fish and Wildlife revises plan for endangered red wolves, but Trump...
Under pressure, the US Fish and Wildlife Service is updating its controversial red wolf recovery plan but scientists and environmental groups are concerned that the Trump administration could doom the...
View ArticleEmergency in Chapel Hill: Don’t drink the water
In an emergency announcement posted at 11: 20 this morning, OWASA has ordered its customers not to use their water until further notice because of potential contamination. Using water could result in...
View ArticleThis Week in Pollution: Once on the loose, asbestos captured in Davidson
Less than a mile from Davidson College, an old mill neighborhood hugs a railroad, which in the late 19th and early 20th century, carried thousands of bales of cotton to warehouses and factories along...
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