Celebrating environmental progress in 2024
We made a difference, together, and we’re ready for what’s ahead.
This year, we turned ambitious goals into transformative action.
From the courtroom to the halls of government and within our communities, we’ve spent nearly 40 years tackling the South’s most urgent environmental challenges, driving meaningful change to protect our region’s air, water, wildlife, and communities.
This year, as the impacts of climate change intensify around us — with record-breaking heatwaves, catastrophic floods, and increasingly destructive storms — we took bold action. Empowered by our dedicated supporters, we worked hand-in-hand with local communities to take decisive steps toward a healthier, more resilient future.
With the Trump administration headed to the White House and their promise to dismantle our bedrock environmental laws, these types of wins are incredibly important. In 2025, we’re ready to work to hold the line on the progress we’ve made and continue to push forward.
Let’s reflect on the ways we shaped our environment this year:
Abundant clean water and air for all
Everyone has a right to clean air and water. This year, we were able to secure multiple landmark wins, including a settlement for Calhoun, Georgia, to address years of forever chemical pollution in drinking water sources. Our nearly decade of work on this toxic water pollution across the South also led to the first ever federal standards to limit six types of harmful PFAS in drinking water.
Our region is experiencing a population boom — we need smart growth to make sure our rivers aren’t tapped dry. This year, we took action in South Carolina and notched a victory in Tennessee to put important guardrails on water withdrawals that would harm our critical sources of water for communities and their local economies.
Landmark settlement filed to clean up forever chemicals
First ever federal limits on PFAS in our drinking water
Tackling rules allowing complete draining of South Carolina’s rivers
EPA denies reckless coal ash plan
A step closer to saving an endangered southern river
Protecting the South’s wildlife and wild places
From the Appalachian Mountains to our sunny southern shores, our region is home to incredible wildlife and remarkable natural treasures.
This year, we protected an important area of the Nantahala National Forest from reckless logging. And we filed a first-of-its-kind lawsuit against the Forest Service that would require the agency to consider our climate when proposing logging projects on our public lands. We safeguarded migratory birds in South and North Carolina. And we’re seeing funds from a SELC settlement hard at work conserving aquatic species in North Carolina, while we’ve been on the frontlines of the fight to protect the iconic Okefenokee Swamp in Georgia from a proposed mine.
Attorney General dismisses challenge to horseshoe crab protections in Cape Romain
Lawsuit saves important area of North Carolina’s Nantahala National Forest
Iconic bird sanctuary is a bad place to test a chemical labeled toxic to birds
Historic settlement provides lifeline for endangered Southern species
Battle to save North America’s largest blackwater swamp continues
Federal agency halts destruction of beloved Appalachian river
Environmental justice for the South
Across our region, we worked alongside communities to address longstanding environmental injustices and push back against industrial polluters. At SELC, we believe that everyone deserves to breathe healthy air, drink clean water, and live in thriving communities free from harmful pollution.
In Sampson County, North Carolina we reached a settlement with the largest landfill in the state to halt its toxic water pollution and mitigate noise and odor issues. In Georgia, we used people power and the Clean Air Act to stop air pollution in two rural communities. And in South Memphis a facility that pumped toxic ethylene oxide into a Black community for decades was shuttered thanks to the action of local advocates and SELC. Meanwhile, we worked with local partners to stop a massive, destructive highway project in South Carolina.
Toxic landfill to end pollution and address environmental injustice
Biomass facility’s unlawful air permit revoked after conservation groups’ legal challenge
Less ethylene oxide is a win for South Memphians
Charleston chooses communities
Plans for toxic facility canceled
Clean air is not a privilege — it’s a fundamental right. Every community deserves to breathe freely and live healthily so they can thrive.
Keri Powell, leader of SELC’s Air Program
The climate progress we need
Climate change is here and the historic federal climate investment has invested nearly $20 billion in clean energy projects across our region. From Virginia to Louisiana, we worked to address the climate crisis and keep this momentum going at the state level.
In Virginia, we fought to keep the Commonwealth in an innovative climate program that has already lowered power plant emissions by 22 percent, and we won. Meanwhile, we partnered with a fishing community in Louisiana to fight a massive methane gas project with huge implications for the Gulf.