Rick Middleton, SELC's founder and Executive Director. At its commencement ceremony in May, Wofford College of Spartanburg, South Carolina, will award Rick an honorary Doctor of Laws degree. The college reserves this honor for individuals who have served our region with distinction and whose lives and careers reflect their dedication to the public good. Rick has devoted his legal career to the betterment of the South and the protection of its natural resources and special places.

David Pope, Director of SELC’s Georgia/Alabama Office. The Environmental Law Section of the State Bar of Georgia has honored David for a career that spans three decades. David received the state bar’s Award for Service to the Profession of Environmental Law, the equivalent of a lifetime achievement Oscar. Before joining SELC in January 2007, he was a founding partner of the Atlanta firm of Carr, Tabb & Pope, LLP, and practiced as a plaintiff’s attorney in all areas of environmental law for 28 years.

Kay Slaughter, Senior Attorney. The Charlottesville, Virginia, Planning Commission has named Kay the Citizen Planner of the Year. Kay is a former mayor of Charlottesville and was recognized for recent work on protecting critical slopes. She has called for strengthened measures to steer development away from steep slopes to slow down flow and absorb rainwater carrying pollutants to urban streams (most of which need restoration), and to preserve natural buffers and wildlife habitat.

A proposal to mine uranium in Pittsylvania County, Virginia - thought to be the largest deposit in the U.S. - has brought the issue front-and-center in the state over the last several years. Virginia has banned uranium mining since the early 1980s when the deposit was discovered; Virginia Uranium Inc. is seeking to overturn the ban. The National Academy of Sciences is about to begin an 18-month study, as requested by the Virginia Coal and Energy Commission, to determine whether uranium mining and milling can be done safely in Virginia.

One of the experts, Doug Brugge, professor in the Department of Public Health and Community Medicine at Tufts University School of Medicine, said the body of evidence of health impacts of exposure to uranium continues to grow. Uranium, a heavy metal, is known to cause kidney damage and birth defects in animals, while other contaminants in uranium ore can cause cancer.

"It's a heavy metal, a chemical toxin, like lead and mercury and cadmium," Brugge told the audience. "We're not at the end of the road, there's probably more to be found." He discussed recent studies from around the world showing even low levels of uranium have health impacts, and that, aided by new genetic technology, researchers are learning more about how uranium changes genetic processes.

Brugge also said that current drinking water standards set by the Environmental Protection Agency are insufficient. EPA sets 30 ug/L as safe to drink; the World Health Organization standard is half that, yet a health-based standard would be about 2 ug/L. "In regards to current standards, I would be skeptical about their adequacy to adequately protect people," Brugge said.

Paul Robinson, research director of the Southwest Research & Information Center in New Mexico, said that most open-pit uranium mines generate five to 10 times the amount of waste rock as uranium ore, and that the milling process to separate the usable uranium from the waste rock also generates massive amounts of waste, called "tailings." Uranium waste is contaminated with both toxic chemicals as well as radiation, and can spread through the air, surface water or groundwater to nearby communities.

Potential mining in Pittsylvania County could have a number of negative economic impacts, he said, including lowered property values, and decreased markets for the region's agricultural products. "The perception of risk is very important in marketing, and that has a socio-economic impact on neighbors (of a uranium mine)."

Robinson also discussed the global uranium market, saying that supply has outstripped demand in recent years, and that that trend will continue. The world uses roughly 65,000 tons of uranium a year - enough for 80 to 100 years at current consumption rates.

Other speakers included Gordon Edwards, with the Canadian Coalition for Nuclear Responsibility, Rianne Teule with Greenpeace International, and Manuel Pino, a professor of American Indian Studies at Scottsdale Community College in Arizona and a member of the Acoma Pueblo, a Native American community hard-hit by health damage among its members who worked at what was the world's largest uranium mine for 30 years until it closed in 1982.

The symposium was sponsored by the Dan River Basin Association, Friends of the Earth, Piedmont Environmental Council, Sierra Club, Virginia Chapter, Southern Environmental Law Center, Virginia Conservation Network, and Virginia Interfaith Power & Light. A video of the symposium will be available next week.

Hall and Johnson will be in Charlottesville on March 20, to accept their awards and read from their work as part of SELC's special event at the Virginia Festival of the Book. Our featured speaker will be renowned southern writer Lee Smith. The event is scheduled for 12 to 2 p.m., CitySpace on the downtown pedestrian mall. It is free and open to the public. A book signing will immediately follow at SELC's offices on the mall, a short walk down the mall (across from Regal Cinemas).

In a talk entitled "Sense of Place: Natural Landscapes and the Southern Writer," Smith will discuss her storytelling roots and upbringing in rural southwest Virginia and reflect on how the unique southern landscape influences her writing, and that of many southern writers. She will also read from her latest book, Mrs. Darcy and the Blue-Eyed Stranger.

In Headwaters, Hall presents in epic fashion the story of Alabama's rivers, spanning time and space from the geologic formation of the Appalachians through to present-day research taking place to protect them. Hall builds his narrative around what he calls "the Great River of Alabama," a single stream of his imagination comprised of all the rivers of the state. He follows the waters as they emerge from primal seepages in the mountains or from the broad Chunnenuggee Hills, carve their way through rocky uplands, roil along the Fall Line rapids, and ease across the coastal plain before they empty into the Gulf of Mexico. Each chapter ends with a special focus on conservation - of fishes, mussels, water quality, and finally coastal rivers and turtles.

As curator of the Black Belt Museum at the University of West Alabama and former Chief of Natural History at the University of Alabama Museum of Natural History, Hall is eminently knowledgeable about this topic, yet it's clear from his unadorned prose and occasional twists of humor that he wants his readers to feel at once awed by and connected to these waters. Presented as a coffee-table book, Headwaters is graced by more than 150 breathtaking photographs by longtime Alabama photographer Beth Maynor Young.

What the Reed judges say: 

•  "It's a handsome and informative book, a good read. History and natural history, legends and lore, this book is well-written and meticulously researched. A joy to read."- Janet Lembke.
   
• "Not only is it beautiful, but you feel a need to save as well as savor these waters."- Nikki Giovanni.

Journalism Award winner Becky Johnson was the lead writer for a special edition of Smoky Mountain Living celebrating the 75th anniversary of the Great Smoky Mountains National Park in 2009. As she noted, the park is many things to many people: a place of refuge, a keeper of history, a home to wildlife, an engine for tourism - a backdrop to life itself in the region. Her multiple stories explore these many facets of the park, as well as the long-standing resentment of some in the region whose forebears were compelled to leave their homes and farms when the government acquired their land.

Johnson spent more than 200 hours interviewing historians, park rangers, old-timers, community leaders, artists, ecologists and those who recreate in the park. Weaving together their voices, along with stories from the past and present-day issues of conservation, she takes her readers on a fascinating tour of one of the most visited parks in the U.S., and one of the most biologically diverse spots in the world.

What the Reed judges say: 

• "I found her articles on the history of the Smokies park particularly important and informative." - Will Martin.
   
• "Becky Johnson certainly had the most in-depth reporting." - Joel K. Bourne, Jr.

SELC also congratulates the runners-up in each category: Howard Ernst in the Book category for Fight for the Bay (Rowman and Littlefield Publishers), and Anne Paine and Brad Schrade in the Journalism category for a collection of articles about the Tennessee Valley Authority and the 2008 coal ash spill (The Tennessean).

SELC is grateful to this year's judges, who generously volunteer their time and talent: J

Joel K. Bourne, Jr. - Contributing writer, former environment editor at National Geographic
Jim Detjen - Director, Knight Center for Environmental Journalism, MSU
Nikki Giovanni - Poet, author, essayist; Distinguished Professor of English, Virginia Tech
Janet Lembke - Poet, essayist, author; Touching Earth
Will Martin - Senior Fellow for World Wildlife Fund; member SELC President's Council.
Bill McKibben - Essayist, activist, author; Deep Economy; Scholar-in-residence, Middlebury College
Tara Rae Miner - Former managing editor of Orion magazine
Deaderick Montague - Civic leader and writer; Vice President of SELC Board of Trustees
Janisse Ray - Essayist, poet, activist, author; Ecology of a Cracker Childhood
Charles Seabrook - Author, former environmental reporter for the Atlanta Journal-Constitution
Donovan Webster - Journalist and author; The Burma Road

Following is a statement from SELC attorney Trip Pollard. Mr. Pollard recently served on the Virginia Climate Change Commission, which released its final report in December 2008:

"Make no mistake - the action today by Attorney General Cuccinelli ignores the dangers to public health and welfare that climate changes pose to all Virginians. It diverts us from the imperative task of shifting the Commonwealth away from heavily polluting, carbon-based fuels and towards cleaner energy. It denies thousands of Virginians the opportunity of getting jobs in the growing clean-energy sector. And it commits future generations of Virginians to the extraordinary costs of dealing with sea-level rise, intensified storms and droughts - all related to climate change. Politicians who focus on snow in the South or unseasonably warm rain at the Winter Olympics are willfully ignoring the unbiased evidence from scientists on global climatic trends that have been established across decades."

Background:

Cuccinelli's announcement comes on the heels of a report by the Virginia Institute of Marine Sciences projecting that rising sea levels and intensifying storms - both as a result of climate change - will have an increasingly devastating impact on the Hampton Roads area. Eric Walberg, with the Hampton Roads Planning District Commission, was quoted in the Daily Press: "... over time we're going to become more vulnerable to catastrophic flooding from a larger storm. We are going to reach the point where a strong Category 1 or Category 2 storm could really create a difficult issue."

In addition, this week the State Corporation Commission is hearing testimony on a plan by Dominion Power to cut energy use across its service area by approximately 2.4 million megawatt-hours per year by 2024, which would reduce carbon dioxide emissions by more than 15 million tons annually, according to the company's press release in July 2009 when it announced the plan. In an article in C-ville Weekly yesterday, company spokesman Jim Norvelle said: "I think [our green initiatives exist] because we're responding to what American society and what our customers are asking us to do."

In December, the EPA announced a final determination that greenhouse gases, including carbon dioxide, threaten the public health and welfare. Hotter, longer heat waves, increased ground-level ozone, and other consequences associated with climate change threaten public health, the agency said. Following are excerpts from its preliminary finding in April 2009:

The Administrator concludes that, in the circumstances presented here, the case for finding that greenhouse gases in the atmosphere endanger public health and welfare is compelling and, indeed, overwhelming...The evidence points ineluctably to the conclusion that climate change is upon us as a result of greenhouse gas emissions, that climatic changes are already occurring that harm our health and welfare, and that the effects will only worsen over time in the absence of regulatory action.

The effects of climate change on public health include sickness and death. It is hard to imagine any understanding of public health that would exclude these consequences. The effects on welfare embrace every category of effect described in the Clean Air Act's definition of "welfare" and, more broadly, virtually every facet of the living world around us.

And, according to the scientific evidence relied upon in making this finding, the probability of the consequences is shown to range from likely to virtually certain to occur. This is not a close case in which the magnitude of the harm is small and the probability great, or the magnitude large and the probability small. In both magnitude and probability, climate change is an enormous problem.

EPA issued the proposed "endangerment" findings in April 2009 and received more than 380,000 comments during a 60-day public comment period. Its final finding was issued in December. The process was in response to the 2007 U.S. Supreme Court decision that greenhouse gases fit within the Clean Air Act definition of air pollutants.

HEARING: Tuesday, February 16, starting at 10 a.m., State Corporation Commission Courtroom, 2nd floor of the Tyler Building, 1300 East Main Street, Richmond

In July, Dominion proposed its first substantial energy efficiency plan, for which it now seeks SCC approval for cost-recovery from ratepayers. The plan, entirely voluntary by Dominion, was developed in response to a change in state law in 2009 allowing utilities to recover the costs of investing in efficiency programs much the same as they do for investing in traditional energy sources, such as building coal-fired power plants.  The purpose of the law, advocated for by the environmental groups, is to begin putting efficiency on a level playing field with older, heavily polluting forms of electricity generation.

 "Although Dominion's energy efficiency portfolio can be improved considerably, this is a good first step and we're happy to see Virginia's new efficiency law bearing fruit," says SELC senior attorney Cale Jaffe.  "The bottom line for all of us is - use less, pay less. It's a no-brainer for businesses, governments and homeowners. We welcome the opportunity to help Dominion make this the best possible program."

Jaffe will offer several recommendations for strengthening Dominion's energy efficiency portfolio, including investing more heavily in roughly 215,000 small businesses and industries, large retailers, hospitals, government buildings, and other customers that use less than 500 kilowatt/hours of electricity.

"Helping small businesses reduce operating costs by making their operations more energy efficient is an important factor in our economic recovery," says Glen Besa, Virginia Chapter Director for the Sierra Club. "The more money that small businesses save, the better they are able to retain and hire workers."

 "Designing efficiency programs to benefit low-income families and those on fixed incomes is critical in these tough economic times," says Tom Cormons, Virginia Director for Appalachian Voices.

Virginia utilities rank 34th in the country in overall energy efficiency, behind neighboring states of North Carolina, Kentucky, Maryland, and others, according to a yearly scorecard by the American Council for an Energy-Efficient Economy. 

"As Governor McDonnell has noted, Virginia is well-positioned to play a leadership role in our country's energy future. Efficiency remains the quickest, cheapest, and cleanest way forward, and we hope that Dominion takes this opportunity to make Virginia a leader," says Chelsea Harnish, with the Chesapeake Climate Action Network.

SELC will present two expert witnesses at the hearing: Hale Powell, a utility analyst with more than twenty-five years of demand-side management experience and a Master's degree in Energy Management and Policy from the University of Pennsylvania; and William Steinhurst, a senior consultant with Synapse Energy Economics who has a Ph.D. in Mechanical Engineering from the University of Vermont.  Mr. Powell and Dr. Steinhurst will offer extensive recommendations for strengthening Dominion's proposed energy efficiency portfolio based on industry best practices and successes that have been achieved in other places.

In Smith's discussion entitled "Sense of Place: Natural Landscapes and the Southern Writer," Smith (On Agate Hill, Oral History, Saving Grace, The Devil's Dream, and Fair and Tender Ladies) will discuss her oral storytelling roots and upbringing in rural, southwest Virginia and reflect on how the southern landscape influences her writing much like it has impacted many southern writers.   She will also read from her latest book, Mrs. Darcy and the Blue-Eyed Stranger.

"Some of our most treasured southern writers have been deeply moved by their experiences in the South, such as mine in Grundy, Virginia. The Southern Appalachian mountains never fail to provide a colorful and beautiful backdrop for my writing," says Ms. Smith. 

"Writers have always drawn their inspiration from the natural world. I see it now in danger and it just frightens me," she adds, explaining why she wants to be part of the SELC event. "There is something in the contemplation of mountains, of nature, and natural places that leads us to think of important things, real questions and issues that people need to be addressing and to be writing about."

Following her talk, the public is invited to a "Meet the Author/Book Signing" in the SELC office headquarters on the downtown mall, (across from Regal Cinema) from 2 p.m. to 3:30 p.m.

"As an organization deeply grounded in a love of the South and a strong sense of place, we're honored to host Lee Smith at this year's Festival," says Marie Hawthorne, director of development at SELC. "Her powerful writing gives voice to the South's natural landscapes at a time when unprecedented growth pressures threaten to overwhelm our mountains, forests, rivers, coast, and countryside."  

The Festival of the Book event is part of SELC's annual writing contest, the Phillip D. Reed Memorial Award for Outstanding Writing on the Southern Environment.

More about the Reed Writing Award
Now in its 16th year, the award is named in memory of SELC founding trustee Phil Reed, a talented attorney and committed environmental advocate. Reed, a graduate of Princeton University and Yale Law School, was one of the first practitioners of environmental law.  He worked in government, the Environmental Law Institute, a non-profit research organization, and headed the environmental practice at Skadden, Arps, Slate, Meagher & Flom in New York.

More about Lee Smith
Lee Smith is the author of eleven novels, including On Agate Hill, Oral History, Saving Grace, The Devil's Dream, and Fair and Tender Ladies, plus three collections of short stories. Her novel, The Last Girls, was a New York Times bestseller as well as a winner of the Southern Book Critics Circle Award.   Her latest novel is Mrs. Darcy Meets the Blue-Eyed Stranger, published by Algonquin Books in early spring 2010.
A retired professor of English at North Carolina State University, Ms. Smith received an Academy Award in Fiction from American Academy of Arts and Letters in 1999.
See www.vabook.org for more information on the Virginia Festival of the Book.

About the Southern Environmental Law Center
SELC is a nonprofit and the largest environmental advocacy organization dedicated to preserving the Southeast's natural heritage for future generations. Focused on clean air and water and protecting forests, rural lands, mountains and coast, SELC has informed, implemented and enforced environmental law and policy for 20 years. Established in 1986, SELC has 63 staff and is headquartered in Charlottesville with offices in Chapel Hill and Asheville, North Carolina, Atlanta, and Sewanee, Tennessee. Visit SELC online at www.SouthernEnvironment.org.

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Conservation groups in both states said Wednesday they are encouraged by news that the agencies are looking at developing two-lane routes mostly along existing roads, which, with necessary improvements, would meet the transportation needs of local communities.  Previous proposals for completing the unfinished segments of Corridor K focused on cutting new highways through the Cherokee National Forest in Tennessee and the Nantahala National Forest in North Carolina.  Both DOTs are now considering two-lane alternatives with lighter environmental footprints at significantly reduced costs to federal and state taxpayers. 

"A massive, four-lane highway through the mountains of this region is overkill, both in terms of the price tag and environmental harm. It's great news the agencies are considering more reasonable alternatives," said DJ Gerken with the Southern Environmental Law Center. In North Carolina, he said, the DOT's own studies show that improvements to existing two-lane highways in the project area will exceed the needed traffic capacity for decades.  "They can't ignore an alternative that costs half as much and avoids paving through an environmental treasure. Federal law is clear on this." (See SELC's comment letter to the Corps: pdf)

NCDOT, in its draft environmental study released in August 2008, refused to consider any alternative other than a new four-lane highway.  The project would cost $378 million and cut a 2,870-foot. tunnel under the Snowbird Mountains, requiring excavation of 3 million cubic yards of rock.  Despite the enormous cost and environmental damage, DOT documents confirm thatfor most hours of the day, the new road would make no difference in travel times.

Conservation groups and citizens protested, arguing that reasonable improvements to existing two-lane roads in the area would serve local traffic needs at less than half the cost and with far less impact on the pristine Stecoah and Cheoah Bald Areas of western North Carolina.  The Army Corps of Engineers, which must issue permits for the remaining sections of Corridor K in both states, told NCDOT in October it must consider the alternative of upgrading and improving existing two-lane roads.

"We are extremely gratified that NC DOT will be giving full consideration to the alternative of upgrading and improving existing two-lane highways. A new four-lane highway through sensitive mountain habitat would have unacceptably destructive impacts to wildlife habitat and water quality. Upgrading existing highways has always made the most sense," said Hugh Irwin with the Southern Appalachian Forest Coalition.

"A four-lane highway would be massively degrading to the waters in this pristine area, as well as to the valuable natural and historic assets of the region which generate millions of dollars in annual recreational revenue to the mountain region, including scenic trails, trout streams, hunting habitat, campgrounds, recreational businesses and historic sites," said Chris North with the North Carolina Wildlife Federation.

In Tennessee, the DOT is weighing alternatives for completing the section of Corridor K through the Ocoee River Gorge. In a recent report to a citizen's advisory panel convened to help TDOT consider design options, the agency confirmed its intention to give full consideration to alternatives that improve existing two-lane highways. It outlined a range of possible two-lane and four-lane routes, including a corridor based on existing Highway 64, and estimated the two-lane options would cost as little as half the four-lane options.  The most expensive option, construction of a new four-lane highway through the Cherokee forest north of the Highway 64, would cost as much as $1.3 billion, whereas improvements to Highway 64 could be completed for as little as $304 million.

"WaysSouth is pleased at this signal that agencies are beginning to recognize that the historic approach of building more and bigger highways is neither environmentally nor economically sustainable," said Jim Grode, executive director of WaysSouth.

"The Sierra Club has long been advocating for reasonable and practical alternatives to road projects.  We are gratified that the Corps of Engineers in North Carolina and now TDOT for the Ocoee segment of Corridor K have recognized that four-lane superhighways may not be appropriate for the southern Appalachian mountains," said Axel Ringe with the Tennessee Chapter of the Sierra Club.