SELC Lists Threatened Southeast Areas
CHARLOTTESVILLE, Va. (AP) -- Alabama's oil-threatened coast, the environmentally hobbled Chesapeake Bay and Georgia's cypress forests are among the top 10 threatened places in the Southeast, according to a list compiled by the Southern Environmental Law Center.
The list released Tuesday also includes the George Washington National Forest in Virginia and three locations in North Carolina.
Each face "immediate, potentially irreversible" damage in 2011 from a variety of threats, ranging from energy exploration to road and bridge construction.
"The key message behind our top 10 list is that there is still time to save these special places -- but we need to act now," said Marie Hawthorne, director of development for the regional conservation organization.
The full list is:
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Alabama's coast, the continued threat from the BP oil spill in the Gulf of Mexico.
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Georgia's cypress forests, falling at a record pace amid demand for cypress mulch.
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Oconee River, Georgia, a proposed coal-fired power plant that would gulp an average 13.5 million gallons a day from the river, at the expense of farms and communities down river.
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Pea Island National Wildlife Refuge, N.C., a bridge replacement plan that threatens an important haven for waterfowl.
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Snowbird Mountains, N.C., a highway expansion plan that would slice through mountain terrain and foul trout streams.
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Cape Fear Basin, N.C., a proposed cement plant near Wilmington that the SELC said would destroy 1,000 acres of wetland habitat and pollute the northeast Cape Fear River.
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Santee River Basin, S.C., an old system of hydroelectric dams that continue decades of degradation of wetland and wildlife habitat.
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Cumberland Plateau, Tennessee, mountaintop removed coal mining practices.
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George Washington National Forest, Virginia, natural gas drilling using hydraulic fracking to separate the fuel from rock. The process generates massive amounts of waste water.
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The Chesapeake Bay, continued pollution from a variety of sources.
The bay is a repeat entry from the SELC's 2010 list.
(Copyright 2011 by The Associated Press. All Rights Reserved.)
