SE (AL AR FL GA KY LA MS NC PR SC TN)

"The Tennessee Valley Authority has determined that capping the coal ash impoundment at the Colbert Fossil Plant is the most economically feasible option, a decision that does not sit well with some environmentalists."

"RALEIGH, N.C. — Gov. Pat McCrory vetoed legislation late Monday reviving a special commission tasked in 2014 with managing the cleanup of coal ash in North Carolina that Duke Energy keeps in pits."

"Tropical Storm Colin has strengthened in the Gulf of Mexico and will bring the threat of heavy rain to parts of Florida and the Southeast Monday and Tuesday. This system was first named Tropical Depression Three late Sunday morning and strengthened into a tropical storm late Sunday afternoon."

"COLUMBIA, SC --  Since a power company began digging up coal ash from a leaking waste pond west of Myrtle Beach, arsenic levels have dropped dramatically in groundwater, according to an environmental group that pushed to have the ash removed."

"A water provider in northern Alabama warned more than 100,000 customers on Thursday not to drink or cook with tap water, saying it could be contaminated with potentially dangerous levels of a chemical that federal health officials have linked to cancer, according to local media reports."

"Andrew Herrington slips on a battered green backpack, stashes a .308 bolt-action rifle under his arm and steps off a boat onto the steep, rocky shores of Great Smoky Mountains National Park."

"In the U.S. Senate, Florida and Alabama are pressuring Georgia to join a water-sharing compact for the Apalachicola-Chattahoochee-Flint river system. But it could be too late downstream for scores of families who earned their livelihoods from the dying Apalachicola River."

"The Florida Everglades is a swampy wilderness the size of Delaware. .. But beneath the surface a different story is unfolding. Because of climate change and sea level rise, the ocean is starting to seep into the swampland. If the invasion grows worse, it could drastically change the Everglades, and a way of life for millions of residents in South Florida."

"DEQ says all Duke Energy coal ash waste must be dug up, but wants permission to be more lenient if improvements occur."

"State regulators have raised the risk designations for some of Duke Energy’s coal ash dumps, a move that could require 25 impoundments to be dug up by 2024.

Or not.

The Department of Environmental Quality wants the power to lower risk rankings in 18 months if the utility proves that coal ash is not polluting nearby drinking water and repairs dams at its waste sites."

"A man moves to a city in Florida and decides he wants to be mayor. He wins the election. He's happy. Then he's told his city is slowly going underwater. Not financially. Literally."