A broken storm-water pipe under a coal ash pond at Duke Energy’s retired power plant near Eden leaked as much as 82,000 tons of hazardous waste in to the Dan River Feb. 2. Appalachian Voices, a local environmental nonprofit, hopes this spill will push the Environmental Protection Agency towards the first federal regulations on coal ash disposal.
BY RACHEL EMILY AUTON
Sept. 4, 2012. Appalachian Voices Executive Director Willa Mays and several other staff members will attend the Democratic National Convention in Charlotte next week to focus the nation’s attention on the devastating impacts of coal on the region’s environment and communities.
July 3, 2012. On Monday night, the Republicans of the General Assembly overrode three vetoes by Gov. Bev Perdue. One was the controversial fracking measure, which would allow companies to retrieve shale gas in North Carolina by pumping water and chemicals underground.
BY JESSE WOOD
June 21, 2012. A proposed rule by the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA), aimed at curbing greenhouse gas emissions and reducing coal as an energy source for new power plants, could have a wide range of effects on High Country residents economically and environmentally, according to local businesses and organizations.
BY GREG HINCE
June 5, 2012. WASHINGTON, D.C. — With twenty-one recent studies highlighting the extreme health impacts of mountaintop removal coal mining, citizens from Appalachia, including members of Boone-based Appalachian Voices, are stepping forward to ask Congress to protect their communities and to demand that regulatory agencies enforce the law.