environment: Triangulator, Indy Week

One N.C. county says "no" to fracking

Billy Ball — Thu, 09 May 2013 17:03:00 -0400

Expect the debate of local vs. state control over fracking to only swell.

Tuesday night, commissioners in Anson County approved a 5-year fracking ban as they gather more information on the drilling and its prospective pros and cons.…

Better late than never for Rogers Road community center

Billy Ball — Wed, 10 Apr 2013 11:22:00 -0400

It may have taken a few decades, but the landfill-blighted Rogers Road community in Chapel Hill is getting some recompense.

Orange County commissioners unanimously approved a vote Tuesday night authorizing County Manager Frank Clifton to award a construction bid for no more than $650,000 to build a long-promised community center in the historically black, low-income neighborhood.…

In Orange County, trash gets its day

Billy Ball — Tue, 09 Apr 2013 08:00:00 -0400

The future of Orange County's celebrated recycling program is before county commissioners tonight.

County commissioners will consider a number of proposals—including the widely-reviled prospect of privatization—when they meet at 7 p.m. in Hillsborough.…

Womack and the case of the vanishing blog entries

Billy Ball — Fri, 22 Feb 2013 12:43:00 -0500

Some of the most inflammatory entries on N.C. Mining and Energy Commission Chairman Jim Womack's blog—in which right-wingers posing as long-dead founding fathers take shots at their political enemies—are, as of this writing, down. The posts were among those cited in this week's story, in which Womack was outed as an author.…

Commerce committee hears destructive fracking bill

Elizabeth Van Brocklin — Wed, 20 Feb 2013 10:50:00 -0500

"This is simple," began state Sen. E.S. "Buck" Newton at a commerce committee meeting yesterday. "This country needs the energy and this state needs the jobs."…

McCrory eyes revenue from oil and gas drilling, counts chickens before they hatch

Lisa Sorg — Tue, 19 Feb 2013 08:25:00 -0500

Has Gov. Pat McCrory been hypnotized by The Beverly Hillbillies?

Specifically, the opening sequence in which Jed Clampett Is "shootin' at some food" when, as the ballad goes, "up through the ground came a bubblin' crude."

Oil, that is, black gold, "Texas Tea."

You might think McCrory has drunk the Texas Tea if you heard him crow about the financial benefits of tracking offshore drilling in his State of the State address last night: "Think what we can do with future revenue."

Yes, let's think about it: Besides the obvious environmental hazards (have we forgotten the BP disaster already?), it is unknown how much "economically recoverable" deposits—those that can be accessed cheaply enough for energy companies to turn a profit— lie in federal waters in the mid-Atlantic.…

Climate change is so real even the feds are afraid

Lisa Sorg — Thu, 14 Feb 2013 10:22:00 -0500

Coastal military bases, federal crop insurance and federal disaster aid: These government programs are vulnerable to the effects of climate change—enough that the Government Accountability Office has placed the fed's financial vulnerability to climate change-related weather events on a "high risk" list.

A report released today cites observations by the United States Global Change Research Program (USGCRP) that the "impacts and costliness of weather disasters—resulting from floods, drought, and other events such as tropical cyclones—will increase in significance as what are considered 'rare' events become more common and intense due to climate change.…

John Skvarla, new Sec'y of DENR: snake oil salesman?

Lisa Sorg — Mon, 07 Jan 2013 12:34:16 -0500

John Skvarla, the newly anointed Secretary of the Department of Environment and Natural Resources, has publicly stated that under his watch, regulations—and the relaxation thereof—will be grounded in science and fact.

In an illuminating interview with WRAL’s Laura Leslie, Skvarla failed the scientific sniff test.…

EPA: Lots left to do on fracking study

Billy Ball — Fri, 04 Jan 2013 16:18:22 -0500

If you enjoy reading instruction manuals, chances are Friday's webinar report on a long-awaited fracking study from the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) was a hoot.

EPA scientist Jeanne Briskin, who is helping to lead the study, explained the multi-pronged approach the agency is taking to tackle fracking, which could begin permitting in North Carolina as soon as 2014.…

Get an update on the EPA's fracking study

Billy Ball — Thu, 03 Jan 2013 11:54:51 -0500

Those looking for the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency's (EPA) final word on fracking impacts will have to wait—at least until 2014.

But the EPA is hosting webinars today and tomorrow to provide a progress report on the ongoing study.…

Fracking board chair promises "substantive" meeting next week

Billy Ball — Thu, 13 Dec 2012 16:31:59 -0500

Thus far, the N.C. Mining and Energy Commission's meetings have been primarily organizational in nature, with members debating such things as pre-meeting prayers and committee assignments.

But commission Chair Jim Womack told members of the N.C. General Assembly's Environmental Review Commission Thursday morning that the group expects its first "substantive" discussion of fracking regulations next week.…

Is Aqua North Carolina in bed with 751 developers?

Lisa Sorg — Wed, 28 Nov 2012 19:07:00 -0500

The private water company Aqua North Carolina has asked to buy water from Chatham County that could be used for the 751 South project.

Chatham County Commissioners voted 4-1 to direct staff to draft a contract that would allow Aqua North Carolina to buy 850,000 gallons per day from the county.…

At Duke this morning: Conservative Visions of Our Environmental Future

Lisa Sorg — Mon, 24 Sep 2012 09:55:00 -0400

If you can get over to Duke this morning, and you can find a parking place, several heavy-hitter conservatives will be outlining their ideas for the environment. Expect to hear the words "free market" and "deregulation."

The event starts at 10 a.m. at Reynolds Theater in the Bryan Center.…

Carrboro to mull Rogers Road sewer

Billy Ball — Tue, 18 Sep 2012 13:47:20 -0400

After years of much-bemoaned inactivity on the touchy subject of Rogers Road, leaders in Orange County seem to be on the move these days.

Two weeks ago, Orange County commissioners passed a sweeping resolution to pledge $500,000 for a long-sought community center in the low-income neighborhood vexed by an aging landfill.…

NRC issues two "apparent" violations against Shearon Harris

Lisa Sorg — Thu, 16 Aug 2012 13:46:54 -0400

A wimpy air-conditioner and a question over acceptable amounts of unfiltered air entering a building have prompted the U.S. Nuclear Regulatory Commission to issue two apparent violations against Shearon Harris Nuclear Plant, according to the NRC.

The NRC has scheduled an enforcement conference at the agency’s Region II office, 245 Peachtree Center Ave. NE, Ste.…

Did the July heat suck or what?

Lisa Sorg — Wed, 08 Aug 2012 15:44:57 -0400

The weather in July in the Triangle was magnificent—if you're a volcano. Or a steel foundry.…

Carrboro Family Dollar hits another snag

Billy Ball — Wed, 01 Aug 2012 15:46:08 -0400

Carrboro planners may have rebuffed a Family Dollar developer's designs for settling in an Alabama Avenue historic neighborhood, but local opponents of the discount store aren't breaking out the party hats and streamers just yet.

"We've been having these small victories," said community resident Anissa McLendon.…

Study: Pennsylvania fracking not to blame for water salinity

Billy Ball — Thu, 12 Jul 2012 16:34:00 -0400

A new study released this week by Duke University researchers seems to excuse fracking from at least one groundwater hazard in Pennsylvania.

The report, issued by researchers in Duke's Nicholas School of the Environment, indicated "natural pathways" in drill-heavy northeastern Pennsylvania could be to blame for elevated levels of underground salts and gases in the region's drinking water.…

Perdue vetoes fracking bill—what's next?

Billy Ball — Mon, 02 Jul 2012 16:46:21 -0400

On Sunday, the lame-duck Gov. Bev Perdue handed down her third veto of GOP-backed legislation in four days when she axed Senate Bill 820, a controversial measure paving the way for hydraulic fracturing, better known as "fracking," in North Carolina as soon as 2014.

It comes days after the governor used the veto power on a GOP-backed budget plan and an overhaul of the Racial Justice Act.…

New report: Seas rising fastest from Cape Hatteras northward

Lisa Sorg — Tue, 26 Jun 2012 10:03:00 -0400

From the Department of Serendipity:

Sea levels along the Atlantic Coast from Cape Hatteras to Boston are rising faster than anywhere else in the world, according to a report in the journal Nature Climate Change.

"We present evidence of recently accelerated sea level rise along a unique, 1,000-kilometer hotspot on the highly populated North American Atlantic Coast north of Cape Hatteras ...…

Fracking's fate rests with Bev Perdue

Billy Ball — Fri, 15 Jun 2012 15:00:40 -0400

To frack or not to frack, this is the question for N.C. Gov. Bev Perdue. The lame-duck governor could ultimately be the one who decides the state's fracking future.…

Environment NC: wind, not gas

Billy Ball — Tue, 12 Jun 2012 15:37:00 -0400

As N.C. House of Representatives leaders prepare to debate the controversial Senate Bill 820, a GOP-backed measure that could open the state's borders to fracking in two years, environmental advocates are making the case for offshore wind as a cleaner alternative.

Leaders with Environment North Carolina say they will release their report (titled "Wind Mills, Not Spills—The environmental and economic benefits of offshore wind versus offshore drilling in North Carolina") Wednesday morning in the legislative building's press room in Raleigh.…

State elections board clears Durham Partnership for Progress

Lisa Sorg — Mon, 07 May 2012 10:12:20 -0400

The N.C. Board of Elections has ruled that the mailers produced by the Durham Partnership for Progress were not coordinated with any candidates supported by the local SuperPAC.

As the Indy reported last week, several complaints had been filed with the Durham Board of Elections, which forwarded them to the state level, alleging that the Partnership was working in concert with Durham commissioner candidates Michael Page, Brenda Howerton, Joe Bowser and Rickey Padgett.…

Durham's first Super PAC has ties to Southern Durham Development

Lisa Sorg — Thu, 26 Apr 2012 15:02:00 -0400

If you’re a Durham County resident, you may have received campaign mailers supporting the slate of Michael Page, Brenda Howerton, Joe Bowser and Rickey Padgett for county commissioner. Here's the mailer:

mailer_no_address.pdf

That mailer was paid for by the innocuously named Durham Partnership for Progress.…

D.R. Horton do-over: Homebuilder returns mineral rights

Lisa Sorg — Tue, 24 Apr 2012 14:07:00 -0400

We were out of the office yesterday when D.R. Horton began returning mineral rights to homeowners in the Triangle.

A quick update in case you missed it: The deed corrections are being issued—47 and counting in Durham County alone.…