SE (AL AR FL GA KY LA MS NC PR SC TN)

"TVA is closing and capping 10 coal ash ponds at power plants in Tennessee and Alabama, against the urging of environmentalists who want the ash dug up and removed."

"Maryland’s ravaged Chesapeake Bay oyster population shows signs of revival inside the state-created sanctuaries that have been off-limits to harvesting for the past decade, according to a report from the Department of Natural Resources."

"Emails obtained through public-records requests by a conservation group show that State Toxicologist Ken Rudo forcefully resisted the McCrory administration last year as it moved to alter the do-not-drink letters sent to hundreds of well owners near coal-ash pits owned by Duke Energy."

"In the first update to the state’s water quality standards in 24 years, the state moved to allow more toxic substances to enter the water. Environmentalists decry, and businesses support, the proposal."

"A coalition of environmental groups went to federal court Wednesday to stop a Texas company's plan to explore for oil and gas in the Big Cypress National Preserve."

"The U.S. Navy confirmed Tuesday that ship shock trials with 10,000 pounds of explosives were conducted on Saturday and earlier in June, on the same dates as earthquake reports in the Atlantic Ocean off the Florida coast."

"The Tennessee Valley Authority's Colbert and Widows Creek power plants have already burned their last piece of coal to generate electricity, but some environmentalists are worried that the tons of coal ash left behind in watery ponds could cause environmental problems long after the burners were turned off."

"The mostly working-class, black neighborhood of Uniontown, Ala., claimed a coal ash landfill was ruining their community. They got sued for it."

"As a noxious algae bloom fouls beaches on Florida's Atlantic coast, the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers is preparing to reduce the flow of water from Lake Okeechobee that many blame for fueling the problem."