2015 — Issue 3 (June/July)
Access to Care: Connecting Rural Residents to Medical Services
Groups across Appalachia are training rural healthcare providers and using telemedicine to link specialists to remote areas.
Read MoreOnline Shopping: A Farmer’s Market
An online marketplace allows shoppers to reach 51 local West Virginia farms at the click of a button.
Read MoreThe Newest Member of Our Team
Please join us in welcoming Tarence Ray, expanding our Appalachian Water Watch project in Central Appalachia and working on federal policy to end mountaintop removal coal mining. Tarence was raised in the rural oilfields of southeastern New Mexico and received a bachelor’s degree in history from the University of Texas at Austin. He served two…
Read MoreSolidarity in the Tar Heel State
Story by Julia Simcoe and staff Appalachian Voices joined representatives of the National Society for the Advancement of Colored People in Stokes County, N.C., last May to stand in solidarity against disproportionate polluting in low-income communities of color. Representatives from local and national levels of the NAACP spoke at the event, joined by Karenna Gore,…
Read MoreFracking Concerns Fuel Research, Government Opposition
The latest hydraulic fracturing news includes new fracking bans and moratoriums and an increase in earthquakes linked to underground injection of fracking wastewater.
Read MoreTVA Milestone at Nuclear Plant
The U.S. Nuclear Regulatory Commission voted in May to issue an operating license to Watts Bar Unit 2, a nuclear power reactor owned by the Tennessee Valley Authority, pending additional regulatory requirements. If approved, Watts Bar 2 would be the first commercial nuclear reactor licensed in the United States since the first unit at the…
Read MoreLawsuit Defends Blackside Dace
A federal lawsuit filed in Knoxville, Tenn., alleges regulators failed to meet legal obligations to protect a threatened fish endemic to Appalachian streams. Four citizens groups, including the Sierra Club and Statewide Organizing for Community Empowerment, claim the U.S. Office of Surface Mining Reclamation and Enforcement failed to consult with the U.S. Fish and Wildlife…
Read MoreMountaintop Removal Reduces Nearby Songbird Populations
Forest-dependent songbird species appear in significantly smaller numbers in areas adjacent to reclaimed mountaintop removal mines, according to a study published this year in the journal Landscape Ecology. Evaluating bird populations in forested land next to reclaimed mine sites in Kentucky and West Virginia, researchers found declines in nearly two dozen types of songbirds, including…
Read MoreIncreasing Homeowner Access to Energy Savings
Financing programs are helping homeowners invest in upgrades that make residences more comfortable while lowering electric bills and reducing a home’s carbon footprint.
Read MoreDominion Eyes Alternate Route for Atlantic Coast Pipeline
Immense public opposition in Virginia led developers to propose alternate routes for the Atlantic Coast Pipeline, avoiding the two counties where residents have been most unwavering. Dominion Transmission Inc., which plans to build the 550-mile natural gas pipeline through West Virginia, Virginia and North Carolina to serve southeastern utilities, announced in May that it mapped…
Read More