Louisianans Near Gulf Struggle As Drinking Water Crisis Persists
"New Orleans has avoided losing drinking water due to a saltwater ‘wedge’ traveling up the Mississippi River – but in Plaquemines parish, it has already happened".
(AL AR FL GA KY LA MS NC PR SC TN)
"New Orleans has avoided losing drinking water due to a saltwater ‘wedge’ traveling up the Mississippi River – but in Plaquemines parish, it has already happened".
"Every year, farmers in South Florida set fire to more than 400,000 acres of sugarcane fields pre-harvest, creating a “black snow” of ash and soot that falls on the low-income communities nearby."
"Every year, tourists from across the globe flock to the south-west corner of Puerto Rico to witness a phenomenon found in only a few select locations worldwide."
"Black residents of a tiny island enclave founded by their enslaved ancestors off the Georgia coast have filed suit seeking to halt a new zoning law that they say will raise taxes and force them to sell their homes in one of the South’s last surviving Gullah-Geechee communities."
"Sewage collecting in crudely dug trenches. Failing septic tanks that send waste bubbling into backyards. These are some of the common sights across Alabama’s Black Belt, a strip of 24 continuous counties blessed with deep fertile soil but long plagued by inadequate wastewater infrastructure and the commensurate parasitic disease."
"Environmental groups have asked the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency to intervene in a south Alabama water system they said has been plagued by leaks, contamination and financial mismanagement, endangering residents in the low-income community."
"Political strategist Eunic Epstein-Ortiz arrived in Florida from New York in 2017 to help a major labor union turn out voters for the following year. She recalls being pleasantly surprised by the positive coverage the campaign received from Florida Politics.
The website is Florida's answer to Politico: It illuminates developments on politics and policy for insiders and news buffs, and it influences what other outlets report about the state. And it reflects the drive of its founder, Peter Schorsch.

In the first of a two-parter for our 2024 Journalists’ Guide to Environment & Energy, TipSheet looks at what climate-driven disasters mean for the home insurance market. Storms, floods and fire rip through communities, yet a federal insurance program falls short, lawmakers shy away from real reform and insurers grow hesitant to cover the risks, while homeowners often attempt to rebuild in the same problematic locales. Plus, see part two on extreme weather and insurance.
"Forecasts for when salt water advancing up the Mississippi River will reach the New Orleans area were drastically pushed back Thursday, potentially sparing most of the city and Jefferson Parish entirely from the threat while avoiding the need to build an emergency pipeline estimated to cost as much as a quarter of a billion dollars."
"The Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) will investigate possible racial discrimination in Alabama’s management of funds that can be used to bolster sewage infrastructure."