Press Releases
State agency committee report confirms Virginia is not ready for industrial-scale gold mining
CHARLOTTESVILLE, Va — After nearly a year of study, a state agency committee formed as part of a work group to evaluate the impacts of gold mining on public health and safety in Virginia released...
Conservation groups applaud DEQ fine against polluting hog operation
FREMONT, NC — This week, the North Carolina Department of Environmental Quality issued a $34,520 penalty against White Oak Farms, an industrial hog operation in Fremont. The penalty stemmed from a May 2022 incident in...
Air Pollution Control Board advances RGGI repeal proposal
CHARLOTTESVILLE, Va. — Today, during its last meeting of 2022, Virginia’s Air Pollution Control Board advanced a proposal to remove the state from the Regional Greenhouse Gas Initiative, better known as RGGI. Virginia joined RGGI...
EPA releases new guidance for states to stop toxic PFAS pollution
CHAPEL HILL, N.C.—New guidance to states issued today by the Environmental Protection Agency is critical for people’s health nationwide because it makes clear that state agencies should enforce existing law to stop toxic PFAS...
North Carolina Real Estate Commission Petitioned to Disclose Flood History
North Carolina Home Buyers Kept in the Dark on Flood Risks, Potential Costs CHAPEL HILL, N.C.—The Southern Environmental Law Center today petitioned the North Carolina Real Estate Commission to require...
Court declines to order release of opinion from Attorney General’s office that withdrawing Virginia from RGGI would violate law
Yesterday the Charlottesville Circuit Court upheld the withholding of an opinion from the Attorney General’s office advising that the Youngkin administration’s efforts to withdraw Virginia from the emissions reduction program known as the Regional Greenhouse...
Conservation groups push state officials to better regulate wastewater discharges after bacterial bloom appears in Middle Tennessee waterway
NASHVILLE, Tenn. — Last week, the Southern Environmental Law Center, on behalf of the Harpeth Conservancy, filed an official complaint to the Tennessee Department of Environment and Conservation alerting state officials...
Lawsuit challenges Army Corps decision imperiling wetlands near Okefenokee Swamp
WASHINGTON — On behalf of four conservation groups, the Southern Environmental Law Center today challenged in federal court a decision by the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers to unlawfully reinstate jurisdictional...
Conservation groups file to defend N.C. permit limits on PFAS water pollution against Chemours’ challenge
CHAPEL HILL, N.C.—On behalf of Cape Fear River Watch, the Southern Environmental Law Center today filed a motion to intervene in the North Carolina Office of Administrative Hearings to defend a...
Parties reach agreement on offshore wind project with significant customer cost protections
CHARLOTTESVILLE, Va. — Today the Office of the Attorney General’s Division of Consumer Counsel, Dominion Energy, Walmart, the Sierra Club, and Appalachian Voices filed a settlement proposal with Virginia’s State Corporation Commission, ending months-long debate regarding the funding and...