Blue Ridge Country - July/August 2013 - 25

M Utilities Exceed Efficiency Goals
by cathryn mccue

mountain
report

duke energy, georgia power and tva combined to save nearly

LLoyd raLeigh

2,500 gigawatt hours in 2011 and 2012.

#3: Box Creek Wilderness, N.C.’s largest private registered Natural Heritage Area, is threatened with being cut in two.

1 2 3 4 5

around the region

north carolina

tennessee

west virginia

Three Southern electric
utilities have exceeded
energy-efficiency goals
two years in a row. Duke
Energy, Georgia Power
and the Tennessee Valley
Authority combined
saved 2,472 gigawatt
hours of energy in 2011
and 2012, about 17 percent above goal.
cleanenergy.org
An EPA survey found
more than half of U.S.
rivers, lakes and coastal
waters in poor condition. The Southern
Appalachian “ecoregion” ranked below
the national average for
aquatic life and riparian
vegetation, and was
about on par for nutrient and bacteria pollution. epa.gov/
aquaticsurveys

With a new conservation
easement, the Land Trust
for the Little Tennessee
has helped protect
11,500 acres of municipal watershed lands in
five western North
Carolina communities.
The latest deal –
between LTLT and the
N.C. Clean Water
Management Trust Fund
– protects the 930-acre
watershed for the Town
of Andrews. “There is no
greater conservation priority than the protection
of the clean water that
flows from these mountains,” says LTLT’s
Executive Director Paul
Carlson, adding that
easements also protect
North Carolina’s scenic
mountain vistas.
ltlt.org

An uproar has erupted
in Rutherford County
over a proposal by the
Rutherford Electric
Membership Corp. to
build a power line
through the 5,800-acre
Box Creek Wilderness,
the largest privately
owned Significant
Natural Heritage Area in
the state. The power
company has filed a
petition to condemn
some of the land for the
project, which opponents say could be built
at less cost and environmental damage using
alternate routing. The
landowner and others
are fighting the project.
The area has some 100
identified rare species of
plants and animals. box
creekwilderness.com

To the disappointment
of mountain activists,
the Tennessee Senate
Energy, Agriculture and
Natural Resources
Committee in late
March refused to hear
public comments on the
proposed Scenic Vistas
Protection Act, effectively killing the measure
for the year. The bill,
aimed at prohibiting
mountaintop-removal
coal mining in the
Cumberland Plateau,
had strong bi-partisan
support among lawmakers, faith groups, environmentalists and the
Tennessee Conservative
Union. Activists say they
will continue building
support for the measure
for next year. appala
chianvoices.org

Alpha Natural Resources
has received federal
approval to expand its
Brushy Fork coal slurry
impoundment near
Whitesville, already one
of the largest such facilities in the U.S., according to the Associated
Press. At 740 feet, the
new dam would be
higher than the Hoover
Dam, and would hold
up to 8.5 billion gallons
of waste; it now holds
about 6.5 billion. The
coal company says that
safety is paramount for
its project, but others
are raising concerns
that a failure of such an
impoundment would be
catastrophic. Further
approvals are required
before the project can
proceed. crmw.net
JULY/AUGUST 2013 | 25

http://www.cleanenergy.org http://www.epa.gov/aquaticsurveys http://www.boxcreekwilderness.com http://www.appalachianvoices.org http://www.ltlt.org http://www.boxcreekwilderness.com http://www.appalachianvoices.org http://www.crmw.net http://www.epa.gov/aquaticsurveys

Blue Ridge Country - July/August 2013

Table of Contents for the Digital Edition of Blue Ridge Country - July/August 2013