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

"The Tennessee Valley Authority's Colbert and Widows Creek power plants have already burned their last piece of coal to generate electricity, but some environmentalists are worried that the tons of coal ash left behind in watery ponds could cause environmental problems long after the burners were turned off."

"The mostly working-class, black neighborhood of Uniontown, Ala., claimed a coal ash landfill was ruining their community. They got sued for it."

"As a noxious algae bloom fouls beaches on Florida's Atlantic coast, the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers is preparing to reduce the flow of water from Lake Okeechobee that many blame for fueling the problem."

"The BP oil disaster cost the Gulf of Mexico's commercial fishing industry $94.7 million to $1.6 billion and anywhere from 740 to 9,315 jobs in the first eight months, according to a new study by the U.S. Bureau of Ocean Energy Management."

"The Alabama Department of Conservation and Natural Resources and Alabama Department of Environmental Management are investigating a fish kill on the Mulberry Fork of the Black Warrior River, in the immediate vicinity of the Gorgas Generating Plant, a coal-fired power plant operated by Alabama Power."

"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."