ADVOCACY in ACTIONSELC Defends the South’s Great Rivers

From protecting the Shenandoah and Savannah to defending the Coosa and

Cahaba, SELC is dedicated to keeping riv-ers and streams across the Southeast clean and flowing. To this end, we are making certain that local, state, and federal agen-cies do their duty to safeguard the waters that are vital to the people and wildlife of our region. Nowhere is this issue more pressing than in Alabama, a state well known for its 77,000 miles of waterways—and, unfortu-nately, for an environmental agency that fails to protect them. SELC is taking legal action against the Alabama Department of Environmental Management, which persists in giving rubber-stamp approval to proposed strip mines with little regard for impacts on the state’s aquatic treasures.

Double Jeopardy for Alabama Waters. The latest case involves the 3,255-acre Rosa coal mine in Blount County, which would release muddy runoff and other pol-lutants from more than 60 outfalls in the watershed of the Locust Fork—a branch of the Black Warrior River already suffering from high levels of sediment. Flouting state law, ADEM gave the project the green light without requiring a pollution abatement plan. And it wasn’t the first time. The agency did the same thing in 2008, when it ignored our objections and those of the Birmingham Water Works and approved the Shepherd Bend coal mine. That mine would dis-charge wastewater into the Black Warrior’s Mulberry Fork just 800 feet upstream from an intake for Birmingham’s drinking water.

Protecting an Endangered Place. Work-ing closely with Black Warrior Riverkeeper, SELC seeks to overturn ADEM’s decisions and prevent new coal mines from striking yet another blow to one of the South’s great rivers. Draining more than 6,000 square miles, the Black Warrior and its branches flow through the Warrior Coal Basin, which today encompasses more than 100 active mines. Over the years, coal mining has left an indelible mark on the Black Warrior, forever changing the landscape around it and subjecting its waters to acids, heavy met-als, sediment, and other pollutants. With new threats on the horizon, SELC has listed the river as one of the Top Ten Endangered Places of 2010 (see page 7). In our legal challenge, our goal is to com-pel ADEM to keep coal mine pollution from further degrading the Black Warrior River, and to make certain the agency lives up to its responsibility to protect Alabama’s abundant waterways. FormoreonourcollaborationswithWater-keeperpartners,seeTheInsideStoryonpage6andSELCNewsonpage7.

SELC to Open Birmingham Office. Thanks to an outpouring of support through our PoweroftheLawCampaign, SELC will open an office in Birmingham this year that will increase our on-the-ground presence and impact in Alabama. “As a Birmingham native, I could not be more delighted,” said Rick Middleton, SELC’s founder and execu-tive director. SELC is grateful to the many friends and supporters who matched two generous challenges to help us launch our new office.

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Quarterly Protection Highlights from the Southern Environmental Law Center • SPRING 2010

IN THIS ISSUE

Regional Highlights . . . 1–3

What’s Happeningin Your State? . . . . . . . . . 4

The Inside Story . . . . . . . 6

SELC News . . . . . . . . . . . 7

Ways to Give . . . . . . . . . 8

FanofSELC.org

Twitter.com/SELC_org

SouthernEnvironment.org

I n the Cherokee National Forest, just north of the Great Smoky

Mountains National Park, more than 350 acres of mature forest and wild-life habitat have been spared, thanks to action taken by SELC and its partners. This result marked the third time in recent months that the U.S. Forest Service has wisely withdrawn an ill-conceived logging project in response to our appeals. The latest case involves the Big

SELC Staves Off Threats to Three National Forests

REGIONAL HIGHLIGHTS

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S ELC has long advocated rail improvements as a way to

reduce the heavy environmental toll of the Southeast’s dependence on cars and trucks. Now our region has an unprecedented opportunity to advance fast and dependable passenger rail service in one of its busiest transportation corridors. In a move we strongly en-dorsed, the Obama administration has awarded North Carolina and Virginia a total of $620 million in economic stimulus funds for high-speed rail projects. By providing the backbone for a network of cleaner, more efficient transportation options (including intercity rail, commuter rail, and modern transit), high-speed rail has the potential to reduce tailpipe emissions, oil consumption, pressure to expand highways, and sprawl. The two states will use the stimulus funds to develop key por-tions of a nearly 500-mile leg of the Southeast High Speed Rail Cor-ridor linking Charlotte, Raleigh, Richmond, and Washington, D.C.

Rail Is on Track for A Comeback in The Southeast

For almost a decade, SELC and its allies have battled the North

Shore Road, a plan to push 34 miles of asphalt into the most wild and remote section of the Great Smoky Mountains National Park. Now the issue has been settled with a solution we have championed all along. The controversy goes back to the 1940s, when the federal government vowed to replace a road in Swain County, North Carolina, flooded by the creation of Fontana Lake. Pres-sure to build the North Shore Road resurfaced 10 years ago, and soon we were working at every level of government—from the state capitol to Congress—to protect the park and to convince decision makers that there were better ways to help Swain County. We sponsored an economic

study showing that a $52 million cash settlement (approximately to-day’s cost of the flooded road) would bring greater long-term benefits to the community than building the “road to nowhere.” After months of negotiations, the National Park Service has agreed to provide Swain County with the $52 million settlement. Rep. Heath Shuler, who was instrumental in achieving this outcome, praised SELC for its role in bringing about a positive and equitable resolution that fairly compensates the county. This is a win-win-win result: a cherished natural area will be saved, a rural com-munity will receive a much-needed shot in the arm, and taxpayers will avoid spending hundreds of millions of dollars on an unnecessary road.

The “Road to Nowhere” Reaches a Happy Ending

Creek timber sale, which threatened a vital habitat corridor for black bear and other wildlife on the Tennessee-North Carolina border. Earlier we prevailed in our appeal of the Thun-derstruck timber sale, which targeted 330 acres of mature cove forest in North Carolina’s Nantahala National Forest. And in Georgia’s Chatta-hoochee National Forest, the Forest Service agreed not to fast-track a con-troversial logging and burning project.

For more information on these and other SELC protection efforts, visit our website at SouthernEnvironment.org.

The “Road to Nowhere” Reaches a Happy Ending

The waters off Georgia and Florida provide the only known calving

grounds for the North Atlantic right whale, one of the most endangered whales on our planet. Only about 400 of these magnificent creatures remain, and the loss of just a single whale could threaten the entire species. Considered the “right” whale to hunt because it made easy prey, the species was all but wiped out by cen-turies of whaling. Now it faces a new danger: a decision by the U.S. Navy to construct an undersea training range directly adjacent to the feder-ally protected calving waters. Whales would face a triple threat, including ship strikes, entanglement in undersea cables and other debris, and exposure to various forms of sonar. SELC and its partners have gone to court to defend the right whale and to challenge the Navy’s decision

SELC Goes to Court to Protect Right Whales and Their Calving Watersto launch this project without a full analysis of its impacts. The Navy plans to conduct nearly 500 train-ing exercises each year in the area, requiring vessels to pass directly through right whale habitat—and

without the speed restrictions placed on other ships to protect the dwindling species. SELChaslistedtherightwhale’scalvingwatersasoneoftheTopTenEndangeredPlacesof2010.Seepage7.

Over the last two centuries, South Carolina has lost more

than a quarter of its wetlands. More are sure to disappear if recent deci-sions by the Army Corps of Engineers are left unchallenged. SELC has served legal notice to prevent the Corps from exposing a nearly 500-acre freshwater wetland tract near Charleston––an area about the size of 375 football fields––to destruction without mitigation. Elsewhere in the state, the Corps has written off other pockets of wetlands, setting prec-edents that imperil thousands more wetland acres. The problem stems from confu-sion created by U.S. Supreme Court rulings that require individual dis-tricts of the Corps to determine, on a case-by-case basis, whether specific wetlands and streams fall under Clean

SELC Takes Action to Keep South Carolina Wetlands Intact

Water Act safeguards. As can be seen in South Carolina, the Corps often fails to recognize that a wetland is federally protected. These cases show why SELC and its Washington, D.C., office are vigorously promoting passage of the Clean Water Restoration Act,

a measure now before Congress that will make clear that these and other waters across the United States are protected by federal law. SELChaslistedSouthCarolina’sfreshwaterwet-landsasoneoftheTopTenEndangeredPlacesof2010.Seepage7.

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FLORIDA FISH & WILDLIFE CONSERVATION COMMISSION/NOAA

TOM BLAGDEN

ALABAMA

Magnolia River. Ala-bama is home to an amazing abundance of waterways, but only a handful carry the designation of Outstanding Alabama Water. Thanks in part to our efforts, the Magnolia River is now among them. The Alabama Environmental Management Commission agreed with us and voted unanimously in December to accord the Magnolia this elevated protection status. The Magnolia River is one of the chief freshwater sources for Weeks Bay, a largely pristine estuary southeast of Mobile Bay.

GEORGIA

Coastal Protection. A widespread threat to the estuaries and tidal creeks on the Georgia coast is inadequately treated wastewater from septic systems, spray fields, and sewage plants. With support from the Kendeda Fund, SELC and its partners in Save Georgia’s Coast recently concluded a two-part forum on the issue, bringing together state and federal regulators, conservation groups, and scientists for an intensive discussion on how wastewater should be disposed of on the coast and the strengths and weaknesses of available technologies.

NORTH CAROLINA

Trout Stream Buffers. SELC is in the North Carolina Supreme Court to defend the state’s cold and clear-running trout streams. The case stems from an appeals court ruling we won last fall, which upheld a state requirement that trout waters be

WHAT’S HAPPENING IN YOUR STATE?

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protected by buffers of natural vegeta-tion to prevent sedimentation and to maintain the clean conditions the fish need to thrive. Our suit challenged a decision by state regulators to allow a resort community in Yancey County to ignore this requirement and to strip away stream buffers and pipe trout waters to make way for a golf course. Rather than enforcing the safeguards we restored, the state is challenging our victory in the high court.

Corridor K. For proposed highway expansions along Corridor K between Asheville and Chattanooga, the state transportation department now must consider improv-ing existing roads rather than focus only on building new four-lane, divided highways along the route—some of it rugged national forestland. As part of a federally required environmental analysis, the Army Corps of Engineers has agreed with our arguments and has determined that upgrading existing two-lane roads along Corridor K in North Carolina is a practical alternative to cutting inter-state-size highways through the mountains.

SOUTH CAROLINA

Charleston Port. SELC is broad-ening its challenge of a port expansion project that would rely almost entirely on trucks to move cargo, leading to crushing levels of traffic on Charles-ton-area roads and

unhealthy levels of air pollution. The judge in our federal suit has allowed us to add claims against the Federal High-way Administration, which decided to ignore rail connections as a way to re-duce the shipping terminal’s impact on I-26, the area’s main highway artery.

TENNESSEE

Wilderness Campaign. SELC and a coalition of partners known as Tennessee Wild are launching a drive to designate 21,000 acres as Wilderness in east Tennessee’s Cherokee National Forest. The campaign seeks congres-sional protection for eight unspoiled

DWIGHT DYKE

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Natural Area outside Chattanooga. This outcome will help protect for-ests, streams, wildlife habitat, and the recreation experience in these parklands.

VIRGINIA

Back Bay Marina. Forming the uppermost tip of the Albemarle-Pamlico estuary, Vir-ginia’s Back Bay supports a rich variety of wildlife, from largemouth bass to migratory birds. Especial-ly important are the bay’s underwater grasses, which provide food, shelter, and nesting grounds for many species. This resource has been put at risk by a plan to build a 76-slip com-mercial marina just north of the Back Bay National Wildlife Refuge. Despite objections from the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service

places in both the southern and north-ern districts of the forest. With the ex-ception of the 9,200-acre Upper Bald River area in Monroe County, the tracts would be additions to existing Wilderness, and most of the acreage has been recommended for Wilderness designation by the U.S. Forest Service. The result will be permanent protec-tion for forestlands beloved by hikers, anglers, and others who enjoy clear streams and pristine places.

Cumberland Trail. When a company sent bulldozers into Cumber-land Trail State Park to excavate rock from an area where it owned mineral rights, the state of Tennessee filed suit to stop the destruction. When the case went to the Tennessee Court of Appeals, SELC filed a “friend of the court” brief on behalf of 14 conserva-tion groups, helping to obtain a favor-able decision. Now the case has been resolved by the state’s purchase of certain mineral rights from the com-pany, Lahiere-Hill, LLC, in the Soddy Creek section of the park and in the North Chickamauga Creek Gorge

and other state and fed-eral agencies, the Army Corps of Engineers has

approved the project. SELC has filed suit to over-

turn the Corps’s decision.

Street Standards. Cul-de-sacs have long been a staple of American subdivisions, but when it comes to promoting mobility, they’re often a dead end. Virginia’s new secondary street standards, which were devel-oped with the help of SELC, call for increasing the connectivity of streets within and between new neighbor-hoods, and they limit the use of cul-de-sacs in future projects. Designed to help ease pressure on arterial roads, reduce polluted runoff, and better accommodate pedestrians, the new rules were included in the NewYorkTimesMagazine’s roundup of the most notable ideas of 2009.

U.S. FISH & WILDLIFE SERVICE

North Shore Road: See page 2.National Forest Timber Sales: See page 2.High-Speed Rail: See page 2.South Carolina Wetlands: See page 3.Endangered Right Whales: See page 3.

THE INSIDE STORY

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A cross the Southeast and across the country, Water-keepers serve as vigilant

guardians of our waterways—from upland rivers and streams to coastal wetlands and tidal estuaries. These groups promote broad public support for water quality, work with decision makers to ad-vance sound water policies, and patrol our waters to catch pol-luters, whether it’s a strip mine discharging toxin-laden runoff, an industrial feedlot releas-ing hog waste, or a developer failing to capture mud from a construction site. Combining Complementary Strengths. SELC shares their unwavering commitment to protecting our region’s waters. Throughout our six states, we are joining forces with Wa-terkeepers in ways that capi-talize on our complementary strengths and capabilities. By combining SELC’s legal skills, policy expertise, and regional perspective with our partners’ grassroots support and thor-ough knowledge of the ecosystems at stake, we can mount an effective, multipronged attack against abuses of water resources and against state and federal agencies that refuse to enforce environmental safeguards. Collaborating on Many Fronts. Our legal action to defend Alabama’s Black Warrior River from coal mine pollution (see page 1) is just one of dozens of current examples of our col-laborations.• In North Carolina, SELC and a

Waterkeeper group—the Pamlico-

Tar River Foundation—have gone to court to overturn state approval of a phosphate mine expansion that would plow through five miles of streams and 4,000 acres of wet-lands on the Pamlico River—the

largest single authorized destruc-tion of wetlands in the state’s history. Another 1,000 acres of North Carolina’s wetlands will be lost if the state approves plans for a massive cement plant near Wilm-ington, a proposal we are battling in concert with Cape Fear River Watch and other organizations.

• In Virginia, we are working with the Shenandoah and Potomac Riverkeepers and the James River Association to strengthen state controls on polluted runoff, a major contributor to water quality

P O W E R F U L PA RT N E R S H I P S SELC and the South’s Waterkeepers Join Forces

problems in the Chesapeake Bay.• And in Georgia, four Riverkeepers

are among the 10 groups working with us in Save Georgia’s Coast, a joint initiative aimed at conserving one of the South’s ecological gems.

Our collaborations have pro-duced precedent-setting results: SELC and the Ogeechee-Canoochee Riverkeeper won two recent court decisions that tighten a loophole in federal wetland protections, and with the Altamaha Riverkeeper, we held off a project that could have opened the door to inten-sive development of Georgia’s fragile marsh hammocks. Keeping Waters Safe and Clean. Many of our partners belong to the Waterkeeper Alliance, an international network founded by Robert F. Kennedy, Jr., and other clean-water advocates just over a de-cade ago. Its member organiza-tions monitor and protect more than 100,000 miles of rivers, streams, and coastlines around the globe—including those in the American South.

“In this region, we can never drop our guard. New threats are always arising, and old threats resurface,” said Rick Dove, a former Riverkeeper in North Carolina and now a represen-tative for the Waterkeeper Alliance. “It’s good to know we can always rely on SELC to be there—to give our Riverkeepers, Baykeepers, and Coastkeepers the legal heft and policy expertise they need to keep our waters safe and clean.” For more on our collaborations with the South’s Waterkeepers, visit SouthernEnvironment.org.

SELC NEWS

S ELC has released its second annual list of the Top Ten Endangered Places in the Southeast, identifying special places that face immediate, potentially ir-

reversible threats and the urgent actions needed to protect them. This year’s list in-cludes Alabama’s Black Warrior River, Georgia’s blackwater rivers and right whale calving waters, North Carolina’s Cape Fear wetlands, North and South Carolina’s Catawba-Wateree basin, South Carolina’s freshwater wetlands, Tennessee’s Ocoee region, Virginia’s Roanoke and Dan river basins, the Chesapeake Bay, and the Vir-ginia and Tennessee mountains threatened by mountaintop-removal coal mining. “We hope this list will serve as a wake-up call, a powerful reminder of what we stand to lose,” says SELC deputy director Jeff Gleason. LearnmoreandseeourTopTenphotogalleryandvideoatSouthernEnvironment.org/about/top_10_2010.

At its commencement ceremony in May, Wofford College of Spartanburg, South Carolina, will award

an honorary Doctor of Laws degree to SELC’s founder and executive director, Rick Middleton. The college re-serves this honor for individuals who have served our re-gion with distinction and whose lives and careers reflect their dedication to the public good. Rick has devoted his legal career to the betterment of the South and the protection of its natural resources and special places.

W ith the equivalent of a lifetime achievement Oscar, the Environmental Law Section of the State Bar of

Georgia has honored SELC’s David Pope for a career that spans three decades. The director of SELC’s Georgia/Alabama office, David received the state bar’s Award for Service to the Profession of Environmental Law. Before joining SELC in January 2007, he was a founding partner of the Atlanta firm of Carr, Tabb & Pope, LLP, and practiced as a plaintiff ’s attorney in all areas of environmental law for 28 years.

C ollaboration is the cornerstone of SELC’s protection model and is reflected in the recognition our river advocacy partners have given us in recent months.

SELC received this year’s Outstanding River Advocate award from the Cahaba River Society, with whom we are pursuing tougher state controls on polluted runoff and other threats to Alabama’s waterways. We also were named the Beyond Rivers Partner of the Year by the Alabama Rivers Alliance, which jointly released the Ala-bama Water Agenda with us to focus attention on the state’s water challenges. Last fall, North Carolina’s Pamlico-Tar River Foundation presented SELC with its Dick Leach Award, which honors the volunteer of the year. SELC and the foundation are challenging a phosphate mine expansion that threatens the Pamlico River.

SELC Names Top Ten Endangered Places for 2010

Wofford College to Honor SELC’s Founder, Rick Middleton

Georgia Bar Salutes SELC’s David Pope

River Groups Recognize SELC

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ConservingtheSouth’swildplaces,cleanair,cleanwater,andlivablecommunitiesforfuturegenerations

Frederick S. Middleton IIIExecutiveDirector

Jeffrey M. GleasonDeputyDirector&Directorof

RegionalPrograms

Derb S. Carter, Jr.Director,NC/SCOffice

David H. PopeDirector,GA/ALOffice

Holly L. HuestonDirectorofFinance&Administration

E. Marie HawthorneDirectorofDevelopment&Marketing

For a complete staff list, see SouthernEnvironment.org.

Joel B. Adams, Jr. Paul K. Brock, Jr.Dell S. BrookeMartin S. Brown Marion A. Cowell, Jr. Dennis M. CrumplerMelvin T. DavisJ. Stephen Dockery IIIJames G. Hanes IIIMatthew E. HapgoodElizabeth H. HaskellAnna Kate HippMark B. Logan Nimrod W.E. Long III

Victor H. AsheRobert L.V. FrenchTerry E. GrantHugh C. Lane, Jr.Hunter LewisWilliam Martin Michael MorencyGeorge L. Ohrstrom IIGinna McGee Richards

Mary Lib LuptonAllen L. McCallie Frederick S. Middleton III Edward M. MillerDeaderick C. MontagueSusan S. MullinStephen E. O’Day William H. SchlesingerJ. Rutherford Seydel II Kathryn S. Smith Thomas F. Taft, Sr.William L. Want Nancy Hanes White

Terence Y. SiegJames Gustave SpethAlice M. StanbackBradford G. StanbackFred Stanback, Jr. Jennifer T. StanleyCameron M. Vowell John B. Wilson, Jr.Bradford W. Wyche

BOARD OF TRUSTEESJean C. Nelson, Chair

PRESIDENT’S COUNCIL

NonprofitOrganizationU.S. Postage

PAIDCharlottesville, VA

Permit No. 449

O utdoor clothing maker Patago-nia has chosen SELC to be one

of four organizations recognized in the company’s spring 2010 messaging T-shirt program. Featuring a design by artist Tim Tompkins, the T-shirt for SELC focuses on the South’s addiction to fossil fuels, our region’s outsized contribution to the global cli-mate crisis, and how SELC is tackling these issues. “If the six states of the Southeast were viewed as a country, it would be the 7th largest contributor to global warming in the world due to our overdependence on gasoline-guzzling cars and trucks, sprawling develop-ment patterns, and coal-burning power plants,” reads a message printed inside the T-shirt. “The Southern Environmental Law Center uses the high-leverage tools of environmental law and policy to comprehensively address both sources of CO2 in this

Patagonia T-Shirts Deliver a Message for SELC

region—smokestacks and tailpipes—and to promote energy efficiency and renewable sources that will lead us to a new, cleaner future.” Patagonia donates at least one percent of its sales each year to environmental groups, including SELC. Other organizations featured on its T-shirts this spring include the Snowlands Network, the League of American Bicyclists, and the Natu-ral Resources Defense Council.

VA/TN Office (Headquarters)201 West Main St., Suite 14Charlottesville, VA 22902(434) 977-4090

NC/SC Office200 West Franklin St. Suite 330Chapel Hill, NC 27516(919) 967-1450

GA/AL Office127 Peachtree St.Candler Building, Suite 605Atlanta, GA 30303(404) 521-9900

SouthernEnvironment.orgPrintedonrecycledpaperusingsoy-basedinks

“We are honored that Patagonia has chosen us for this unique outreach pro-gram,” said Marie Hawthorne, SELC’s director of development and market-ing. “It spreads the word that there is a strong, effective organization, with an almost 25-year successful track record, actively defending this special—and especially threatened—region.” The shirts are available in stores na-tionwide and online at Patagonia.com.