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The latest on the Key Bridge collapse, New York puts forth legislation to get clean energy projects on the grid and Wisconsin and other states join a federal summer food program to help feed kids across the country.

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Republicans float conspiracy theories on the collapse of Baltimore's Key Bridge, South Carolina's congressional elections will use a map ruled unconstitutional, and the Senate schedules an impeachment trial for Homeland Secretary Mayorkas.

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Historic wildfires could create housing and health issues for rural Texans, a Kentucky program helps prison parolees start a new life, and descendants of Nicodemus, Kansas celebrate the Black settlers who journeyed across the 1870s plains seeking self-governance.

Report: NC Agribusiness Places Heavy Load on Water Quality

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Thursday, July 14, 2016   

NEW BERN, N.C. — The agriculture industry is one of the top contributors to the economy in North Carolina, but according to a new
Graves and other environmental groups are calling both on the industry to support food-production systems that will not harm water quality and on state government agencies to enforce the Clean Water Act.

A statement from Smithfield Foods - one of the companies named in the report - called the Environment North Carolina report a "political attack" and said their company has been limiting the application of manure to crops for the past 20 years.

One problem in North Carolina, said Graves, is the fact that state regulators allow a large majority of agricultural farms to apply for general permitting instead of permitting under the Clean Water Act, which requires more stringent practices in the handling of waste.

"It's been a gift to the industry, really, as far as saving them the cost and the type of environmental work that would be involved in having them all obtain a Clean Water Act permit,” Graves said. "So this general permit assumes, inexplicably, that all the pollution from these farms is contained on the farm. "

In 1995 and 2009, a series of fish kills on the Neuse River claimed more than 1 billion fish. According to the Environmental Protection Agency, agriculture is the probable cause of more than 145,000 miles of rivers and streams, 1 million acres of lakes and reservoirs, and 3,000 square miles of bays and estuaries becoming too polluted for recreation, wildlife and drinking water.



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Wisconsin children from low-income families are now on track to get nutritious foods over the summer. Federal officials have approved the Badger …

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Almost 2,900 people are unsheltered on any given night in the Beehive State. Gov. Spencer Cox is celebrating signing nine bills he says are geared …


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New York's Legislature is considering a bill to get clean-energy projects connected to the grid faster. It's called the RAPID Act, for "Renewable …

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Michigan recently implemented a significant juvenile justice reform package following recommendations from a task force made up of prosecutors…

 

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