Environmental groups are suing South Fork Coal Company, alleging the company has repeatedly violated federal law in Greenbrier County.
The lawsuit said the company has continued to discharge pollutants into nearby waterways at levels exceeding legal limits. Environmental advocates said despite years of dumping pollutants, the state's environmental protection department has not taken action to stop South Fork Coal.
Andrew Young, chair of the extractive industries committee for the West Virginia Highlands Conservancy, said the lawsuit is asking for an injunction to immediately stop the dumping and ensure the company properly reclaims the land.
"We noticed that South Forks' own monitoring data showed that they were often discharging pollutants like iron, manganese, in excess of their legal limits," Young pointed out. "The allegations are based largely on what the company itself is reporting."
Advocates said the five mines in the lawsuit all discharge pollutants into the Laurel Creek Watershed and/or the South Fork of the Cherry River Watershed. Both streams feed into the Gauley River, an internationally renowned destination for whitewater rafting and kayaking, and home to the endangered candy darter.
The lawsuit also highlighted the company's failure to submit required water quality assessments and reclaim unused sites. Young argued the company's neglect of water and land standards puts local communities and the outdoor recreation economy at risk.
"The mines at issue here lie adjacent to the Monongahela National Forest, and it's less than six miles from the world-renowned Cranberry glades and Cranberry Glades Wilderness Area," Young explained.
The state's tourism industry brought in nearly $9 billion last year. According to the governor's office, more than 75 million visitors traveled to the Mountain State last year, and spent more than $6 billion.
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A north Texas commissioners' court has declared a county disaster because of PFAS contamination.
Johnson County Commissioners are asking Gov. Greg Abbott to join the declaration.
PFAS - also known as forever chemicals - have been found in soil, groundwater, and surface water across the county.
Commissioner Larry Woolley said the problem has been going on since at least 2001, when biosolids were used as fertilizer.
"These chemicals don't break down, they don't go away," said Woolley. "They just build up, and they get more and more concentrated, whether it be in soil and livestock organs. A stillborn calf liver tested 610,000 parts per trillion."
He said well water near biosolid application sites tested positive for PFAS, at levels several hundred times higher than the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency's safe drinking water limits.
The disaster declaration allows Johnson County to apply for federal assistance for farmers and implement emergency measures to protect public health and safety.
An emergency declaration from the governor would let residents apply for federal assistance.
Deputy Johnson County Constable Dana Ames said the problem is not going away.
"We're around 50 cows now," said Ames. "Back when this first started, it was a couple of cows, it was some dead fish. This is a reoccurring thing because the contamination persists. The PFAS that's there, once you get them into your body, they bioaccumulate."
The county and several ranchers have also sued the EPA, alleging it failed to set limits on the number of PFAS allowed in sewage sludge used as fertilizers.
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Recognizing climate change is not isolated to certain parts of New Mexico, legislators are considering bills to help protect the state's air, land and water.
One in three counties in the state has experienced devastating fire and flood damage in recent years.
Shelley Mann-Lev, executive director of the advocacy group Healthy Climate New Mexico, a group of public health professionals and students who believe climate change is the greatest threat to residents' health, as well as the state's ability to provide health care in local communities, said the effects are far-reaching.
"It's not just chronic diseases," Mann-Lev pointed out. "Heat, flooding, fires, drought are creating incredible health threats and if we don't take action, we'll make it so that we will not have a livable future."
According to the 2024 Conservation in the West poll, 59% of New Mexicans consider climate change a "very" or "extremely serious" issue. Mann-Lev noted the bills would address climate change head-on to achieve the state's goal of reducing greenhouse gases by 45% by 2030, compared to 2005 levels.
New Mexico experienced its largest and most destructive wildfire in the state's history in 2022. But Mann-Lev stressed residents' health is also affected by wildfires as far away as California or Montana, depending on wind conditions.
"Part of what makes us as New Mexico so vulnerable is that so many people in our population already have serious health problems," Mann-Lev observed. "We already have higher rates of child asthma."
New Mexico also is the second-largest oil-producing state in the U.S. behind Texas, and the nation's top natural gas producer. Mann-Lev believes the legislation would align pollution reduction goals.
"We also can demonstrate that an important oil and gas producing state can make the investments and make this transition in a way that sustains our economy, supports our communities in the process," Mann-Lev contended. "So that it's not just being done 'to them,' it's being done with them."
She added the state's Community Benefit Fund would invest $340 million in infrastructure, workforce development, renewable energy projects, energy efficiency upgrades and more.
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Atlantic menhaden weigh less than a pound and measure little more than a foot long but the small fish has big consequences for the Chesapeake Bay ecosystem.
A bill introduced in the Virginia General Assembly is looking to study the Atlantic menhaden population in the Chesapeake. There is little data on Atlantic menhaden populations in the Bay and fishing and conservation groups say that's the problem.
Jaclyn Higgins, forage fish program manager for the Theodore Roosevelt Conservation Partnership, said menhaden populations are not well-researched in the Bay, despite studies on the species along the entire Atlantic coast.
"There were a couple studies kind of done throughout the last 20 years but nothing super comprehensive and nothing that would allow us to say this is the amount of menhaden that we would consider healthy for the Chesapeake Bay," Higgins explained. "Really, we don't know anything about Chesapeake Bay menhaden."
The bill would provide $3 million for the study of menhaden populations in the Chesapeake. The research would look at if reduction fishing, which pulls millions of pounds of menhaden out of the Bay each year, is leading to local depletion.
But why is such a small fish so important to the Chesapeake Bay environment? Higgins pointed out Atlantic menhaden are a keystone species for the rest of the Chesapeake food chain.
"They make up the base of the marine food chain along the Atlantic, but in particular, in the Chesapeake Bay," Higgins emphasized. "They are a primary food source for striped bass. Striped bass are really reliant on menhaden as a food source in those juvenile and adult stages while they're in the bay."
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