Kicking Coal Ash in Carolina

Over the past months, Appalachian Voices and our Red, White and Water campaign have continued the fight against toxic coal ash in North Carolina. In Charlotte, Appalachian Voices teamed up with the local Greenpeace chapter to host a coal ash tour, led by award-winning reporter Rhiannon Fionn, who has covered issues related to Duke Energy’s…

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Red, White and Water Campaign Turns Up the Heat on Toxic Coal Ash

On Feb. 15, Appalachian Voices’ Red White and Water team, North Carolina Riverkeepers and other organizations launched a campaign called N.C. Can’t Wait, a petition and education drive to protect communities from toxic coal ash pollution. The campaign was created after monitoring near coal ash ponds at North Carolina’s 14 coal-fired power plants confirmed that…

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Proposed Coal Ash Regulations Weaker than Household Waste Laws

Nearly three years after the Tennessee Valley Authority coal ash disaster spilled over a billion gallons of toxic sludge into the Emory River in Harriman, Tenn., the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency is set to finalize guidelines regulating coal ash ponds. However, a bill in the Senate could put a permanent hold on the EPA’s ability…

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Rally to Save Ison Rock

Hundreds of citizens gathered at U.S. Environmental Protection Agency headquarters in Washington, D.C., on Nov. 16 to call on the EPA and White House to block a proposed mountaintop removal permit that would destroy Ison Rock Ridge in Wise County, Va. More than 2,000 residents living in the five communities that surround the mountain would…

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Hundreds of Concerned Citizens in Charlotte Demand EPA Protections from Toxic Coal Ash

For Immediate Release: September 14, 2010 Contact: Rachele Huennekens, Sierra Club (703) 470-2454 Donna Lisenby, Upper Watauga Riverkeeper, (704) 277-6055 Charlotte, NC — Hundreds of concerned citizens gathered in Charlotte on Tuesday, September 14, urging the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency to pass strong, federally-enforceable safeguards for coal ash, the hazardous remains left over from coal-fired…

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NC Environmental Groups Detail Environmental, Health Problems from Toxic Coal Ash Waste

Appalachian Voices NC Conservation Network North Carolina Sierra Club FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE Friday, September 10, 2010 Contact: Dan Conrad, NC Conservation Network, 919.857-4699 Donna Lisenby, Appalachian Voices, 828.262-1500 Molly Diggins, Sierra Club, 919.833-8467 NC Environmental Groups Detail Environmental, Health Problems from Toxic Coal Ash Waste Report concludes that “Regulation is needed in North Carolina” In…

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Coal Ash Cleanup Effort Comes in Phases

Story by Sarah Vig “A clean-up can either be done right or it can be a ticking time bomb,” California Senator Barbara Boxer cautioned TVA CEO Tom Kilgore during the Environment and Public Works committee’s oversight hearing on the recent coal ash spill at the Kingston Fossil Plant near Harriman, TN. In response, Kilgore promised…

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United Mountain Defense: On the Front Lines at TVA Spill Site

Story by Sarah Vig Call them the environmental movement’s equivalent of an emergency response team. Within only 14 hours of the dam failure at the Kingston Fossil Plant, United Mountain Defense mobilized. Having gained years of experience organizing and conducting water sampling in communities throughout Tennessee impacted by mountaintop removal mining, and with headquarters in…

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Altered Lives- The Human Side of an Environmental Disaster

Story by Sarah Vig When looking at photographs of the TVA coal ash disaster in Roane County Tennessee, the enormity of the spill’s environmental impact is immediately apparent. According to some, the disaster could only be put into perspective from the air. But in other ways, the impacts are best seen on the ground. The…

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