Environment

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 20, 2018 - The pain and suffering caused by disasters do not affect all communities equally.

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.

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 24, 2018 - A key permit voided. An environmental justice complaint. Accusations of fraud. In recent weeks, Dominion and Duke Energy's proposed pipeline to carry fracked gas from West Virginia at least as far south as North Carolina has faced several setbacks. But the developers plan on moving ahead with the $6.5 billion project anyway — and they're investing in creating a political climate favorable to those plans.

May 11, 2018 - With protests ongoing over the planned Bayou Bridge oil pipeline, the Louisiana legislature advanced a bill this week creating new crimes with stiff penalties for conspiracy to trespass on pipeline property — part of a broader trend of states and the federal government targeting protest actions.

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.

April 27, 2018 - Armed with a new study documenting the deadly poverty that plagues the U.S., coalitions in at least 40 states — including every state in the South — are preparing for 40 days of direct action to demand an end to public policies that hurt the most vulnerable. 

April 26, 2018 - This week the Environmental Protection Agency held a public hearing in Virginia on a proposal to roll back federal coal ash regulation. Among those who weighed in was a newspaperman from a rural Georgia community that's been targeted for coal ash dumping.

April 13, 2018 - A federal lawsuit filed on behalf of scores of dead and ill people who cleaned up the massive 2008 coal ash spill in eastern Tennessee is expected to get underway later this year. While claims have been made that no one warned of the health dangers for workers, records show otherwise.