| |
 |
North Carolinians are examining the impacts of steep-slope development. Pictured above: a road network built on a Macon County ridge in preparation for a residential subdivision.
PHOTO BY JERRY GREER/FLIGHT BY SOUTHWINGS |
In the largest water pollution fine ever, Massey Energy has agreed to a $20 million settlement with the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency. The country’s fourth largest coal producer was charged last year with more than 4,500 violations of the Clean Water Act between 2000 and 2006, discharging metals, mud and acid-mine drainage into hundreds of streams and rivers in West Virginia and Kentucky. Massey, which said a timely settlement was in shareholders’ interests, also agreed to spend $10 million in pollution prevention at its mining operations in the two states and Virginia. usdoj.gov
Conservation groups have petitioned the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service and the Office of Surface Mining to ensure that coal mining does not harm federally protected wildlife. The groups are especially concerned about water quality in three watersheds in Tennessee and Virginia – the Big South Fork, Powell and Clinch. Studies have found that at-risk mussel and fish species have declined in these river systems, where mountaintop removal is on the rise. The groups want the FWS to throw out its 1996 “biological opinion” that no coal mining operation anywhere in the U.S. would ever jeopardize threatened or endangered species listed then, or in the future. SouthernEnvironment.org
West Virginia
The state’s five-member congressional delegation has introduced a proposal in Congress to protect more than 47,000 acres of the Monongahela National Forest as wilderness, the highest form of environmental protection for federal lands. The Wild Monongahela Act would create four new areas and expand the existing Dolly Sods, Cranberry and Otter Creek wilderness areas. By law, roads, structures, mechanized vehicles and commercial activities (including logging) are prohibited in wilderness. Hiking, hunting and recreation are allowed.
The West Virginia Wilderness Coalition supports the bills, but has worked for several years with sportsmen, business owners, lawmakers, religious and union leaders and others to advocate a citizen proposal with 15 new areas totaling 143,000 acres. In late February, Gov. Manchin proposed adding three new areas totaling 4,000 acres to the congressional plan. wvwild.org
North Carolina
The Community Foundation of Western North Carolina has earmarked $100,000 for the Mountain Landscapes Initiative to bring developers, landowners, government managers and others from seven counties together to discuss growth management in the region. Meanwhile, a study from the Land-of-Sky Regional Council finds that steep-slope development should be regulated to protect the public from landslides. The N.C. Geological Survey reports that hurricanes Frances and Ivan in 2004 triggered at least 145 landslides in the region, causing five deaths and destroying 27 homes. The state legislature will take up a measure to regulate development on slopes of 25 percent or steeper, which opponents say will increase housing costs. cfwnc.org
Tennessee
Tennessee has issued a “greatest hits” list of water bodies with good water quality, important ecological (such as threatened or endangered species), recreational and scenic values. No degradation of waters designated as “outstanding” is allowed, while pollution discharges are strictly limited in “exceptional” waters. Clean streams in the Blue Ridge include stretches of rivers including the Pigeon, Little, Conasauga, French Broad and Holston, as well as hundreds of little-known waters including Bee Suck Branch in Sullivan County, Ike Wright Branch in Cocke and Chigger Branch in Unicoi. state.tn.us/environment/wpc/publications
Virginia
The state Department of Environmental Quality has approved plans to dump fly ash from the Glen Lyn coal-fired power plant along the banks of the New River. American Electric Power plans to pile about 30 feet of ash at the site near Narrows to raise it above the 100-year flood plain. The seven-acre site would be sold for industrial or commercial use, with proceeds going to local schools. But a group called Concerned Citizens of Giles County is worried that lead, mercury, arsenic and other toxins could seep into groundwater or the river, and filed suit in February in circuit court. canody.com/teamgiles
State officials have okayed the first wind farm in Virginia, while federal officials have rebuffed another. The State Corporation Commission gave final approval to build 20 wind turbines in Highland County, a plan which drew considerable controversy over the past several years. The SCC is requiring the company to monitor and minimize the 400-foot-tall turbines’ effects on bats and birds. The U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service, meanwhile, has raised objections to plans for a wind farm straddling Rockingham County (Va.) and Pendleton and Hardy counties (W.Va.) and covering habitat for two endangered bats and the bald and golden eagles, as well as land in the George Washington National Forest. vwec.cisat.jmu.edu; vawind.org
ONE OF A KIND
57 million
Acreage of southern pine beetle infestation in the South.
$138 billion
Yearly financial impact of invasive species infestations in the U.S.
33
Nonnative plants currently found in forests in 13 southern states
—A sampling of facts and information found on a new website launched by the U.S. Forest Service’s Eastern Forest Environmental Threat Assessment Center: forestthreats.org
|
|
