Riverkeeper pleased with coal ash settlement

Charlottesville’s Southern Environmental Law Center, representing the James River Association, reached a settlement with Dominion on the utility’s plans to dump coal ash wastewater from the Bremo Power Station in Fluvanna. A local riverkeeper says new standards will protect human and aquatic life. The deal between the groups, which will be enforceable by law, requires […]

Trash talk: One local wants litter removed from the Rivanna

It’s been nearly three months since Albemarle County resident Scott Fox first noticed a number of plastic bags littered across the bank of the Rivanna River behind his house, caught on rocks and tree limbs in the water and trapped below the water’s surface. Fox, who lives in a small, A-frame house right on the […]

Dominion to dump in Virginia rivers

The State Water Control Board officially approved Dominion’s permit to dump wastewater into two Virginia rivers January 14. The wastewater will come from coal ash pits at the Bremo Power Station on the James River and the Possum Point plant on the Potomac River. The board took two separate votes, tallying 5-1 for each permit. […]

Honorable discharge: Will toxic water be dumped in the James?

Environmental groups and concerned citizens worry that Dominion’s intentions to dump millions of gallons of wastewater per day into the James River won’t go swimmingly. Alleging that the wastewater potentially being discharged from a Fluvanna County power station will contain coal ash and toxic metals, some are worried about the environmental impacts on the river […]

Playing dirty: Atlantic Coast Pipeline accused of eluding soil rules

Soil collecting may be an inherently dirty business, but the United States Forest Service is now calling into question the ways in which soil in the Atlantic Coast Pipeline’s path has been collected and recorded. In a November 5 letter to the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission, a supervisor of the Monongahela National Forest, located in […]

People’s Climate Movement brings Dominion pipeline into question

On Wednesday, October 14, the People’s Climate Movement called environmental activists to Charlottesville’s Downtown Mall to rally on climate change. Dominion Power’s potential installation of a pipeline that would run throughout Virginia wildlife areas was the big issue, and the free speech chalkboard was filled with “No Pipeline” signs, buttons and stickers opposing Dominion. Olivia Lewis, a […]

Dominion to lessen noise of pipeline’s compressor

The people of Yogaville, who were once worried about noise pollution from the Atlantic Coast Pipeline’s compressor site proposed just six miles away, may now be able to continue living peacefully. According to Carla Picard, Dominion Energy’s external affairs manager for the Atlantic Coast Pipeline, the company will put full station silencers on the compressor […]

Off the grid: A model for environmentalism made easy

It’s affordable, actually sustainable and certainly not the modern American lifestyle most have become accustomed to, with multiple cars per family, smart phones for everyone and streaming video on demand. The 5-year-old project called Living Energy Farm is an off-the-grid, zero-fossil-fuel-emission community in the works in Louisa County, described in two words by its creator: […]

Update from Nepal: Charlottesville native discusses relief work post-quake

It’s been about two-and-a-half months since a 7.9 earthquake rocked the small, South Asian country of Nepal April 25. Though news coverage has dissipated and camera crews have long since returned home, the era of rebuilding the devastated capital city of Kathmandu and surrounding areas has only just begun. Charlottesville native Marli Gordon was working […]