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"The federal agency that manages the vast wildlife refuge in the Okefenokee Swamp says a private company’s plan to mine minerals near the swamp edge could pose “substantial risks” to the environment, and some damage may be irreversible."

"Rare sea turtles are smashing nesting records this summer on beaches in the Southeast, with scientists crediting the egg-laying boom to conservation measures that began more than 30 years ago."

"Communities in Louisiana are taking the first steps toward recovery after Hurricane Barry made landfall in the state as a Category 1 storm Saturday before being downgraded to a tropical storm."

"Less than 24 hours before landfall, the National Hurricane Center predicts Tropical Storm Barry will approach Morgan City early Saturday, bringing flood-inducing rain and storm surge with it."

"A storm churning in the Gulf of Mexico and aimed at water-logged New Orleans is likely to make landfall as the first Atlantic hurricane of the 2019 season by late Friday or early Saturday, forecasters said."

"Major U.S. oil producers on Tuesday began evacuating and shutting in production at their deepwater Gulf of Mexico platforms in advance of a tropical disturbance expected to become a storm this week."

"In this Louisiana parish, residents are already surrounded by industrial plants and factories. They’re desperate to stop a new plastic company."

"A rescue mission to save Florida corals from a mysterious disease that’s devastating local reefs arrived in Miami on Friday with 400 specimens that may be used as a gene bank to potentially breed new colonies and repopulate reefs in the future."

"All of Mississippi's Gulf Coast beaches have been closed for swimming as the expanding bloom of toxic blue-green algae blankets the state's waters."