skip to main content
skip to newscasts

Friday, March 29, 2024

Public News Service Logo
facebook instagram linkedin reddit youtube twitter
view newscast page
play newscast audioPlay

The latest on the Key Bridge collapse, New York puts forth legislation to get clean energy projects on the grid and Wisconsin and other states join a federal summer food program to help feed kids across the country.

view newscast page
play newscast audioPlay

Republicans float conspiracy theories on the collapse of Baltimore's Key Bridge, South Carolina's congressional elections will use a map ruled unconstitutional, and the Senate schedules an impeachment trial for Homeland Secretary Mayorkas.

view newscast page
play newscast audioPlay

Historic wildfires could create housing and health issues for rural Texans, a Kentucky program helps prison parolees start a new life, and descendants of Nicodemus, Kansas celebrate the Black settlers who journeyed across the 1870s plains seeking self-governance.

Pipeline Impacts on Appalachian Trail Detailed

play audio
Play

Wednesday, September 20, 2017   

RICHMOND, Va. – A new report details the impacts a huge natural gas pipeline would have on the Appalachian Trail, and some of America's most cherished forest lands.

Part of the Too Wild to Drill report looks at where the Mountain Valley Pipeline (MVP) runs along the Appalachian Trail near the Virginia-West Virginia border.

Laura Belleville, vice president for conservation and trail management at the Appalachian Trail Conservancy, says the MVP would put a 125-foot-wide bare strip through what had been undisturbed woods – close to some of the most visited and beautiful sections of the trail.

"Angel's Rest, Kelly Knob, Dragon's Tooth,” she points out. “A large swath through what was an intact forested area, and that goes on for miles."

Federal regulators look likely to give initial approval to the MVP this week, although the pipeline will face challenges in court and before state environmental agencies.

The energy companies behind the pipeline say it's needed to bring Marcellus gas to eastern markets.

Belleville says it would cause erosion and forest fragmentation, as well as impacting views.

She says three million people visit the trail each year. But Belleville says the industrial scale pipeline project would break up and damage the now intact forest landscapes, degrading water and harming wildlife.

"When you remove acres and acres of intact forested area, you will get a lot of erosion coming off of very, very steep slope,” she states. “There are also some species that require large, intact areas of forest."

One issue for pipeline opponents has been the vulnerable karst geology of the region. Limestone bedrock often is eroded away by water – making it subject to slips, sinkholes and cave-ins.

Belleville says the area is also seismically active – pointing to an earthquake in Giles County last week.

"It registered a 3.7 on the Richter scale,” she says. “What kind of impact could an earthquake have on a 42-inch pipeline going through karst habitat?"

The West Virginia Department of Environmental Protection has withdrawn water pollution permits for the MVP. Belleville says the Appalachian Trail Conservancy hopes Virginia regulators will do likewise, although officials there have been more deferential.



get more stories like this via email

more stories
The U.S. Supreme Court heard arguments this week about the popular abortion pill Mifepristone and will weigh in on whether the U.S. Food and Drug Administration was correct in how it can be dosed and prescribed. (Ascannio/Adobe Stock)

Health and Wellness

play sound

Missouri residents are worried about future access to birth control. The latest survey from The Right Time, an initiative based in Missouri…


Social Issues

play sound

Wisconsin children from low-income families are now on track to get nutritious foods over the summer. Federal officials have approved the Badger …

Social Issues

play sound

Almost 2,900 people are unsheltered on any given night in the Beehive State. Gov. Spencer Cox is celebrating signing nine bills he says are geared …


The U.S. teaching workforce remains primarily white while the percentage of Black teachers has declined. However, the percentage of Asian and Latinx teachers is rising.(WavebreakMediaMicro/Adobestock)

Social Issues

play sound

Education advocates are calling on lawmakers to increase funding for programs to combat the teacher shortage. Around 37% of schools nationwide …

Environment

play sound

New York's Legislature is considering a bill to get clean-energy projects connected to the grid faster. It's called the RAPID Act, for "Renewable …

Social Issues

play sound

Earlier this month, a new Arizona Public Service rate hike went into effect and one senior advocacy group said those on a fixed income may struggle …

Social Issues

play sound

Michigan recently implemented a significant juvenile justice reform package following recommendations from a task force made up of prosecutors…

 

Phone: 303.448.9105 Toll Free: 888.891.9416 Fax: 208.247.1830 Your trusted member- and audience-supported news source since 1996 Copyright © 2021