Posts Tagged ‘appalachia’
Toxic Warnings: Recent Spills Underscore Lack of Water Oversight
By Kimber Ray In the early morning hours of Jan. 9, Kim Thompson was getting ready to leave her South Charleston home in Kanawha Co. — the most populated region in the mountains of West Virginia — and head out to her job as field supervisor for a local telecommunications company. As she twisted the…
Read MoreAppalachia’s Place in the War on Poverty
By Molly Moore Patsy Dowling considers herself a success of the War on Poverty. As a premature baby born in western North Carolina in 1964 — the same year President Lyndon B. Johnson declared war on poverty — Dowling entered a world where the medical bills from her early arrival were a steep financial burden…
Read MoreConnecting the Dots of the Southern Appalachian Loop Trail
By Matt Kirk What unites many of us in the Southern Appalachians is a love for hiking along the hundreds of miles of trails in our region. Ten years ago, I discovered that many of these paths form a loop measuring over 350 miles in length. Pieced together, this route, known as the Southern Appalachian…
Read MoreCourt Strikes Down Bush-era Water Rule for Coal Mines
By Molly Moore In February, a U.S. district court struck down the 2008 Stream Buffer Zone Rule, which loosened stream protections near mountaintop removal mining sites, declaring it violated the Endangered Species Act. Senior Judge Barbara Rothstein wrote that the Office of Surface Mining Reclamation and Enforcement wrongfully proceeded with the environmentally harmful rule even…
Read MoreEnergy Efficiency Offers Promise of Lower Electric Bills
By Brian Sewell Even as residential energy efficiency improves, the impact of home energy costs on low-income families in the Southeast has become more severe since the turn of the century, according to a report by Appalachian Voices. The report, titled “Poverty and the Burden of Electricity Costs in the Southeast,” found that in 2001…
Read MoreAppalachian States Debate Hemp Legalization
By Nolen Nychay The legal hemp farming debate has come to Appalachia. The much-debated Farm Bill President Obama signed into law in February included a “hemp amendment,” which permitted the regulated cultivation of industrial hemp in states that have legalized hemp farming. Hemp is a cash crop in the cannabis family that, despite lacking most…
Read MoreCherokee Tribe Works to Replenish Deer Population
By Kelsey Boyajian On the Eastern Band of the Cherokee Nation’s Qualla Boundary in western North Carolina, white-tailed deer are a rare species. The population was depleted in the late eighteenth century during the peak of the fur trade, but today, efforts are being made to restore the deer population — plentiful in the rest…
Read MoreVolunteering Across the Region
AmeriCorps AmeriCorps is one of three core programs of the Corporation for National and Community Service, a federal agency that calls upon local communities for volunteer opportunities. AmeriCorps programs include disaster relief, anti-poverty efforts and general community support, as well as various state and local programs. Appalachia boasts numerous AmeriCorps service opportunities that benefit the…
Read MoreAttempts at Legislation, Regulation Follow Water Threats
By Molly Moore Almost as soon as West Virginia American Water Company ordered 300,000 residents to avoid contact with their tap water, the question arose: why was crude MCHM, a chemical now known to be highly toxic, so poorly understood and regulated? The lack of a clear answer brought national attention to the fact that…
Read MoreWary and Waiting
By Karen Smith Zornes I didn’t have a problem with the spill at first; I thought, “Accidents happen.” But when it came time for us to flush, I had an asthma attack from the smell. I went outside for fresh air and tried to flush again later — and had another asthma attack. After our…
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