The 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…

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Solidarity 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,…

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TVA 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…

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Lawsuit 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…

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Mountaintop 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…

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Dominion 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…

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