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Celebrating EJ Victories! New ‘Clean Currents’ Newsletter!
“Clean Currents” is our organization’s quarterly newsletter featuring our current campaign work, drinking water news and opportunities to get involved!
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The Most Detailed Map of Cancer-Causing Industrial Air Pollution in the U.S.
By: Al Shaw and Lylla Younes, ProPublicaNovember 2, 2021 It’s not a secret that industrial facilities emit hazardous air pollution. A new ProPublica analysis shows for the first time just how much toxic air pollution they emit — and how much the chemicals they unleash could be elevating cancer risk in their communities. ProPublica’s analysis of five years of modeled EPA data identified more than 1,000 toxic hot spots across the country and found that an estimated 250,000 people living in them may be exposed to levels of excess cancer…
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MVP Southgate & Continued Resistance
This article is by CWFNC volunteer James Lopez Residents throughout the Appalachian states of Virginia, West Virginia, and North Carolina have united in protest against Mountain Valley Pipeline (MVP) and the proposed MVP Southgate extension. MVP is a proposed natural gas pipeline that, if constructed, will be built through West Virginia and Virginia, with the Southgate extension cutting through southern Virginia and Rockingham and Alamance counties in North Carolina. The MVP pipeline was first announced in 2014, with construction expected to be complete by 2019. The coronavirus pandemic, loss of required…
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Over 30 air pollution “hotspots” in North Carolina have elevated cancer rates, per ProPublica study
By: Lisa Sorg, NC Policy WatchNovember 4, 2021 The hundreds of people who live closest to SGL Carbon in Morganton are breathing air so polluted that they face a lifetime cancer risk 120 times greater than set by the EPA. Each year, SGL is allowed by state permit to emits nearly a ton of methylene chloride and 174 pounds of benzene, both known carcinogens The area near the plant is one of thousands of “hotspots” identified by ProPublica, which yesterday unveiled a massive environmental story that mapped the spread of cancer-causing chemicals from sources of…
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Environmental lawsuit challenges NC biogas production from hog waste
By: Arturo Pineda, Carolina Public PressOctober 22, 2021 A complaint about pollutants from hog farms filed last month with the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency alleges that the N.C. Department of Environmental Quality’s issuing of biogas permits to four hog farms will have a disproportionate impact on communities of color in the surrounding area. North Carolina environmental and civil rights advocacy groups argue that if the biogas operations are allowed to operate, pollutants from the operations will affect the communities of color surrounding the hog farms. Biogas production is…
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Will property owners who lost land to scuttled Atlantic Coast Pipeline get it back?
By: Lisa Sorg, NC Policy WatchOctober 28, 2021 Advocates cry foul as future of thousands of easements in North Carolina and Virginia remains uncertain Dominion Energy laid claim to 3,100 tracts of private land along the Atlantic Coast Pipeline route, including hundreds in North Carolina, but the company is not immediately returning that acreage to property owners, even though the project has been cancelled. Now property rights and environmental advocates, as well as landowners themselves, are asking federal officials to formally intervene. Under the name…
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NC Legislature Finalizing Redistricting Maps – Be A Voice For YOUR Community!
Our General Assembly is preparing to finalize the redistricting maps that could shape the state’s politics for a decade. Why Redistricting Matters! This is how funding is determined for communities,This determines how many House of Representatives each district receives, andRedlining can determine how votes are combined to favor one political party over another. The Republican-led legislature is aiming to have the maps for congressional districts and the General Assembly completed by Nov. 5. The state’s redistricting committees just announced public hearings…
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EPA to regulate certain types of ‘forever chemicals’ in drinking water in 2023
By: Rachel Frazin, The HillOctober 18, 2021 The EPA on Monday released its strategy for addressing a type of cancer-linked chemicals called PFAS, including its plans to finish a rule to regulate certain types of PFAS in drinking water in 2023. PFAS stands for perfluoroalkyl and polyfluoroalkyl substances, and these substances are a group of man-made chemicals that have been linked to health problems such as kidney and testicular cancer. According to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, exposure rates can be difficult to assess, but one…
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Pollution from N.C.’s Commercial Poultry Farms Disproportionately Harms Communities of Color
By: Aman Azhar, Inside Climate NewsOctober 13, 2021 The legislation aimed at regulating North Carolina’s huge and largely unregulated poultry industry seemed modest in scope, requiring commercial chicken farms to submit waste management plans to environmental regulators so the public would know where millions of tons of chicken “litter” ends up. But as the legislative session in Raleigh came to a close in July, the bill had moved not an inch—and no one was surprised. “We’re unlikely to see any poultry related legislation passed in the short run,”…
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Acknowledging the Sacred Indigenous Lands of North Carolina
“Our country was conceived on a promise of equality and opportunity for all people — a promise that, despite the extraordinary progress we have made through the years, we have never fully lived up to. That is especially true when it comes to upholding the rights and dignity of the Indigenous people who were here long before colonization of the Americas began. For generations, Federal policies systematically sought to assimilate and displace Native people and eradicate Native cultures. Today, we recognize Indigenous peoples’ resilience and strength as well as the immeasurable positive impact that they have made on every aspect…
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