On Tuesday, Aug. 12, the People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals released a statement, video and photo gallery (link below) claiming a Western North Carolina dairy farm mistreats its animals. The video showed cows on the farm knee-deep in their own manure, trudging through the sludge while feeding, sleeping and before milking. PETA reported many of […]
A Statehouse committee chaired by Buncombe Rep. Tim Moffitt convened in Raleigh Jan. 17 to question DENR officials and hear from residents near the former CTS electroplating facility on Mills Gap Road south of Asheville. Here, Moffitt embraces CTS neighbor Dot Rice, whose family’s spring was contaminated by hazardous chemicals used at the plant; numerous Rice family members have become gravely ill.
In this edition of the Mountain Xpress’ local news podcast, environmental reporter Susan Andrew talks about the recent “listening session” held by the N.C. Department of Environment and Natural Resources to address customer permitting frustrations.
It’s a volatile time in the state budget process, and North Carolina’s main environmental agency, the Department of Environment and Natural Resources, can do little but watch as legislators, led by a recently installed GOP majority, work to close an estimated $2.4-billion shortfall through sharp cuts to its budget, expected to be approved in June. This week’s negotiations included a proposal to cut DENR’s Asheville office by two thirds, and eliminate the Mooresville office (in the Charlotte area) altogether.
A public hearing on the possible need for stricter pollution control requirements at the Blue Ridge Paper Products Canton mill will be held at 7 p.m. tomorrow at Tuscola High School in Waynesville.
Here’s a round-up of environmental news that affects Western North Carolina, from local issues to national news we’ve been tracking.
While state legislators are considering a bill that appears to relax groundwater standards, state environmental officials are seeking public comment on rule changes that strengthen some of them – and relax others.
When Charles Dickens published works such as A Christmas Carol and Hard Times in the mid-1800s, coal loomed large among the world’s energy sources. The smokestacks in Dickens’ tales belched black, toxic smoke. That smoke may be gone or at least reduced today, thanks to better filtering and monitoring. But we still rely on coal, […]
On an ice-cold November night, almost 200 people gathered for a public hearing called by the state Division of Water Quality concerning developer Jim Anthony‘s request for permission to alter 6,149 feet of streams and disturb about a quarter-acre of wetlands at The Cliffs at High Carolina. The 2,780-acre project straddles a mountain ridge between […]
The North Carolina Division of Water Quality wants your input on the Water Quality Certification requested for The Cliffs at High Carolina project in southern Buncombe County. On Tues., Nov. 18, starting at 6:30 p.m. at A.C. Reynolds High School in Fairview, the division is holding a public hearing.
Funding for a two-mile water line in Jackson County wipes out a full year’s emergency drinking-water allocation for the entire state, but gives relief to families enduring cancer-causing benzene contamination.
