LUMBERTON, N.C. – Hurricane Maria is expected to impact weather on the North Carolina coast at the top of next week, and the rainfall expected to follow will be another strain on already struggling communities.
Some counties only now are receiving Federal Emergency Management Agency dollars almost a year after Hurricane Matthew.
While cleanup and rebuilding still are ongoing, there is a growing concern about the infrastructure in place in the event of future extreme weather.
Larry Cahoon is a professor of biology for University of North Carolina Wilmington who has studied waste management. His verdict: The state isn't prepared for the next big storm. His verdict: The state isn't prepared for the next big storm.
"We have a compelling set of problems creeping up on us,” he warns. “They don't appear as dramatically as potholes in roads or bridges that fall down, but again, this is about public health, ultimately."
Nationwide, in a report released this week Environment North Carolina estimates a 271-billion-dollar backlog in wastewater system project needs.
The current 2018 budget proposed by President Donald Trump includes a 31 percent decrease in funding for the Environmental Protection Agency and with that, programs that protect water quality and coastal areas.
Adrienne Kennedy of Lumberton lost her car after Hurricane Matthew, and now helps others trying to rebuild. She says relief from Matthew has been slow to come, as is assistance on how best to rebuild.
"The timeline just doesn't add up for us, especially for rural towns and communities that just have no idea what to do,” she states. “So we're left to try to pick up the pieces.
“To me, and to a lot of people that come to my disaster relief center, we feel like the hurricane happened yesterday."
Cahoon and multiple bodies of scientific research point to sea levels rising along the Atlantic coast, largely due to climate change.
He says with water collection systems already antiquated and unable to keep up with extreme weather, the problem will only get worse.
"If the groundwater levels are coming up because sea level itself is rising, then we have an increasing problem to face, and we're going to have to figure out how to fix that or find some other approach," he stresses.
North Carolina currently receives $2.5 million in grants that help communities to protect their coasts. Those funds would be eliminated in the current Trump budget.
Reporting by North Carolina News Connection in association with Media in the Public Interest and funded in part by the Park Foundation.
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A new report found four dams in the Columbia River Basin are big emitters of methane.
Research from the organization Tell The Dam Truth showed the four lower Snake River dams in eastern Washington emit the equivalent of 1.8 million metric tons of carbon dioxide each year.
Robin Everett, deputy western region field director for the Sierra Club, said it undercuts some of the claims the dams are helping provide the region with clean energy.
"It's really clear from this report that we have to take this a lot more seriously that there are some real impacts as far as emissions go from these dams," Everett asserted.
The reports showed the dams produce the equivalent emissions of burning 2 billion pounds of coal annually. Defenders of the dams counted they are important for barging and irrigation for the area's agricultural lands.
But Everett pointed out the dams have another effect on the region: they block the dwindling population of salmon and steelhead from traveling upstream on the Snake River. She noted it not only hurts fish populations but the tribes relying on them.
"We have an obligation for them to be able to fish and if there are no fish to fish, we have broken the treaties," Everett contended
Chinook salmon are also an important source of food for orca on the West Coast. Everett added protecting salmon is important for tribes and the region as a whole.
"Our moral obligation to the salmon and the orca that depend on them are met as well," Everett concluded.
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A proposed pumped-storage hydroelectric facility for Cuffs Run near the Susquehanna River in York County has been challenged by the Chesapeake Bay Foundation.
The foundation filed a motion to intervene in the proceedings with the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission, which is considering granting a preliminary permit to build a 1.8-mile-long dam for the project.
Harry Campbell, science policy and advocacy director for the Chesapeake Bay Foundation, said they are working to stop the project in order to protect the unique Cuffs Run area and its ecological benefits for future generations.
"If approved, this project would destroy it about 580 acres of prime farmland, fields and forests, some of which have not been disturbed in about 100 years," Campbell pointed out. "Those farms, fields and forests exist harmoniously with and in support of a plethora of plant and animal life."
The foundation is circulating an online petition and encouraged Pennsylvanians to provide comments before Sunday.
The stream is home to naturally reproducing brook trout. Advocates worry the $2.5 billion project would also be harmful to the Susquehanna River. Campbell noted about 40 families would be displaced.
"For those who call Cuffs Run home, it's more than just a place to live. It's their heritage and they want it to be part of their legacy," Campbell asserted. "This project just simply is the wrong idea in the wrong place. In order to honor that heritage and that legacy, we need to preserve this area."
Campbell emphasized the Cuffs Run project is about 993 acres of land draining into a 2.5-mile unnamed tributary. He added in terms of stream habitat, the rocks, pebbles and woody material have been identified as among the best in the region for supporting critters living in the water.
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Tennesseans want more say in how the Tennessee Valley Authority plans for their future electricity needs and a bill now in Congress could give the public more influence.
The "TVA Increase Rate of Participation Act," would require a more open decision-making process for the utility.
Brianna Knisley, director of public power campaigns for Appalachian Voices, said the TVA is currently developing its new Integrated Resource Plan to meet future energy demands. The bill would require more public participation in the plan's proceedings.
"Right now the stakeholders who get to provide input early on in the IRP process are all hand-selected by TVA," Knisley pointed out. "You can't choose to be in that IRP working group. And those are the only folks who get substantial input in the architecture of the IRP, as it's being designed."
The utility serves more than 10 million people across six states. The TVA said it is reviewing the legislation. A draft of the plan will be published at a later date. The TVA said it already has a "robust stakeholder engagement plan."
After the plan is released, Knisley noted public input happens during what's known as the scoping phase of the National Environmental Policy Act. Open houses are set up, where the TVA answers questions from the public. Knisley encouraged Tennesseans to raise any of their concerns during the public and virtual hearings.
"I think additional public input into our region's long-term energy plan is only going to strengthen outcomes," Knisley contended. "And make that long-term energy plan better meet the needs of the Tennessee Valley, as a whole."
She added it is important for Tennesseans to work with Congress on the best way to improve public input in the TVA decision-making process.
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