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North Carolina fails to adopt national water quality standards for heavy metals — Former state employee to speak out at DENR hearing today
Contact: Cat McCue, Communications Director, 434-293-6373 Raleigh — North Carolina is the only southern state that does not meet nationally recommended criteria for controlling toxic heavy metals in surface waters, putting the state’s natural resources and public health at risk, according to Amy Adams, a former supervisor with the state Department of Environment and Natural…
Read MorePodcasting Appalachian History
By Bill Kovarik Dave Tabler’s education in art history didn’t prepare him to be an Appalachian historian so much as his hope to overcome the way his father “spent a lifetime running away from mean jokes about marrying your cousin and swilling moonshine.” After helping his father with a book, Tabler started the Appalachian History…
Read MoreN.C. Citizens Speak Up About Power Plant Water Pollution
By Sarah Kellogg Four out of five power plants currently have no limits on the levels of heavy metals they can dump into rivers and lakes. The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency, however, is preparing to change that, and in the process they are hearing from impacted citizens around the country. Since June, more than 165,000…
Read MoreAn Era of Undoing: The State of Appalachia’s Labor Unions
By Brian Sewell “We are union,” the marchers chanted. Blanketing the streets of downtown Charleston, W.Va., with bystanders shouting in support, the vocal crowd stretched for blocks behind a banner that read “Fighting for Fairness at Patriot.” Shortly after Patriot Coal declared bankruptcy in July 2012, the company announced plans to rescind its promise of…
Read MoreHistorical Hidden Treasures of Kentucky
By Rachel Ellen Simon U.S. 23 Country Music Highway Museum In the mid-20th century, an eastern Kentucky saying put a new spin on the “three Rs” – “readin’, writin’, and Route 23.” With the post-war decline of coal, millions of Appalachians sought work in cities north along U.S. Hwy. 23. This “Hillbilly Highway” also connected…
Read MoreRunning on Reality: A Conversation with Anthony Flaccavento
An abridged version of this interview was published in the print edition of our June/July 2013 issue. Here’s the full transcript. For more than 20 years, Anthony Flaccavento has worked to build bridges between small-scale organic growers like himself and farmers markets, grocery stores and public schools. He founded Appalachian Sustainable Development in 1995, a…
Read MoreAdapting Farms to Face the Climate Challenge
By Brian Sewell Around the world, farmers are arguably the first to feel the impacts of climate change, and of all the systems put at risk, food may be the most fragile. Some of the largest grain and livestock producing states are still recovering from last year’s drought-stricken season. And forecasts for this summer are…
Read MoreTips for Hiking with Kids
• Hiking is a great way to tap into children’s instinctive curiosity, as long as you’re prepared to slow your pace and stop to explore whatever catches their attention. • Let kids carry their own small packs. Having their own water bottle, snack and camera gets them engaged. • Prepare everyone for the fact that…
Read MoreBee Deaths Linked to Pesticides
By Davis Wax More than 30 percent of managed bee colonies in the United States perished this past winter, and beekeepers are looking for answers. While parasites, viruses and malnutrition can be factors in entire hives dying, evidence is building that pesticides are one of the major culprits. Danny Jaynes, president of the N.C. State…
Read MoreEnergy Report shorts
Permit to Mine Ison Rock Revoked In the latest chapter of a six-year battle between A&G Coal Corporation and the citizens of Wise County, Va., the Virginia Department of Mines, Minerals and Energy denied a 1,200-acre mountaintop removal coal mining permit on Ison Rock Ridge, which would have buried 14,000 feet of streams. The department…
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