Top 10 2009: Protection Progress

Protection highlights from last year’s list of the Top 10 Most Endangered Places in the Southeast

Great Pee Dee RiverGreat Pee Dee River, SC
Ending a battle we and our partners have waged for years, South Carolina’s state-owned utility suspended plans to build a 1,320-megawatt coal-burning power plant on the banks of the Great Pee Dee River. The Santee Cooper plant would have pumped out more than 10 million tons of heat-trapping carbon dioxide each year, as well as toxic mercury pollution and other harmful emissions. Learn more.

 

 

Weeks Bay, ALWeeks Bay, AL
To protect this biologically rich estuary, SELC helped the town of Magnolia Springs, Alabama, develop a new runoff control ordinance that is one of the strongest of its kind in the state. The new law safeguards the Magnolia River, a major source of fresh water in Weeks Bay. And thanks in part to SELC’s advocacy, the Magnolia River was recently designated an Outstanding Alabama Water, giving it the state’s highest protection status. Learn more.

 

 

 

Weeks Bay, ALCherokee National Forest, TN
SELC and its partners convinced the U.S. Forest Service to withdraw its decision to log 355 acres of mature forest just north of the Great Smoky Mountains National Park. The proposed timber sale jeopardized a vital habitat corridor for black bear and other wildlife and would have entailed cutting trees on steep slopes with severe erosion hazards, putting clear-running mountain streams at risk. Learn more.

 

 

 

Other developments this past year:

  • Georgia’s Salt Marshes:SELC helped convince Georgia regulators to say no to an attempt by the Savannah District of the Army Corps of Engineers to weaken water and wetland protections.
  • Globe Forest, NC: : SELC continues to oppose a proposed timber sale that threatens mountain vistas and increasingly rare stands of old-growth forest—including trees up to 300 years old.
  • Pamlico River, NC: SELC has filed suit to overturn a state permit allowing the expansion of phosphate mining operations through nearly 4,000 acres of wetlands and some five miles of streams near the mouth of the Pamlico River.
  • Johns Island, SC: SELC continues to advocate cost-effective alternatives to an outdated interstate expansion that would imperil wetlands, fragment wildlife habitat, and cut through a rural community.
  • Clinch & Powell Rivers, VA: In response to lawsuits brought by SELC and other groups, the Obama administration is proposing revisions to coalfield stream protections, which were all but eliminated by a rollback in federal mining regulations in late 2008.
  • Interstate 81 Corridor, VA: SELC has countered continuing pressure to widen the entire 325-mile length of I-81 in Virginia and advanced alternatives such as multi-state rail improvements to divert truck traffic from the interstate.
  • Virginia’s Marine Waters: SELC is urging the Obama administration to protect the Atlantic coast and southern beaches rather than allow drilling for the small amount of oil offshore.

 

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