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Southern Environmental Law Center Celebrates 20 Years Protecting the South's Natural Heritage

Posted on: Wednesday, 13 September 2006, 09:00 CDT

CHARLOTTESVILLE, Va., Sept. 13 /PRNewswire/ -- The Southern Environmental Law Center (SELC), a nonprofit, nonpartisan environmental advocacy organization, celebrates its 20th anniversary this fall. For two decades, SELC has informed, implemented and enforced law and policy to protect the Southeast's environment and health. Today, the organization is both reflecting on its past success and preparing to meet the threats associated with the explosive, exponential growth projected for the Southeast.

"We are proud to have become a strong voice and successful defender of the South's priceless natural resources," says Rick Middleton, SELC's Founder and Executive Director. "SELC has made real progress. We have created and defended strong safeguards for this region, protecting hundreds of special places from the mountains to the coast. Our experience has prepared us for the tremendous challenges ahead as the South's growth accelerates and threatens to outpace environmental protections."

SELC addresses the most pressing issues that impact the South's air and water, mountains, forests, coast, rural lands and special places across six states: Alabama, Georgia, Tennessee, South Carolina, North Carolina and Virginia. Over the last two decades, SELC has worked in collaboration with more than 100 local, state and national partner groups and handled about 500 projects and cases with significant success.

This fall the U.S. Supreme Court will hear SELC's appeal of an enforcement action against Duke Energy, an operator of coal-fired power plants. The Court's decision will yield a far-reaching precedent and could reduce emissions from old, coal-fired power plants nationwide.

"Air quality in the Southeast is among the worst in the country," adds Middleton. "More than 20 million people live in counties that fail to meet the new, stronger, federal health standards for air pollution. But we do not have to accept dirty air, polluted water, poorly planned growth and the loss of our special places."

SELC milestones include: * Enhanced protection for two million of the five million acres of Southern Appalachian national forestland by stopping bad timber sales, expanding wilderness areas, prompting improvements in long-term forest management plans, and promoting special protection for "roadless areas." * Joining forces with the Governor of North Carolina, utility companies, physicians, and conservation/health groups to pass the North Carolina Clean Smokestacks Act of 2002. This model state-level legislation will cut power plant emissions statewide -- equivalent to removing 4.5 million cars from the road. * Closing one of the most egregious Clean Water Act loopholes that had allowed developers to ditch, drain, and convert tens of thousands of acres of native wetlands to monoculture pine tree plantations. SELC's settlement brought eight million acres of the highest-quality southern wetlands under the protection of federal law for the first time -- at a cost of five cents per acre. * Winning three separate rulings against the U.S. Navy, blocking construction of a massive fighter-jet training facility on North Carolina's Albemarle-Pamlico Peninsula -- site of the highest concentration of wintering waterfowl on the East Coast and of a successful re-introduction program for endangered red wolves. * Being chosen by four of the nation's prominent public health organizations -- Physicians for Social Responsibility, American Nurses Association, American Academy of Pediatrics, and American Public Health Association -- to be their champion in a landmark challenge to EPA's weak standards for power plant emissions of the dangerous neurotoxin mercury.

Middleton adds, "SELC's work is more important today than ever. Concerted efforts are underway to weaken and roll back even the most fundamental environmental safeguards. Combined with the explosive growth in our region, the South is in jeopardy."

"We are all worried our kids will grow up in a world that is unhealthy and divorced from nature, and that they won't know the natural world and special places like we have known," says Jean Nelson, Chair of SELC's Board and co- founder and President of the Land Trust for Tennessee. Nelson is also former General Counsel of the Environmental Protection Agency. She continues, "We all wonder 'what can I, as one person, do?' Fortunately, SELC has the vision, experience, and legal power to act on our behalf."

SELC, which charges no fees, funds its $7.75 million budget through charitable gifts from individuals, families, and foundations.

SELC's current initiatives include promoting sensible growth and more sustainable transportation; working at the state and federal level to clean up pollution from coal-burning power plants and securing other controls needed to restore healthy air; protecting the nearly five million acres of national forests in the Southern Appalachians; halting the destruction of valuable wetlands; safeguarding wildlife habitats and ecosystems; and ensuring healthy drinking water and enough clean water flowing in our rivers and streams to support a healthy and diverse array of aquatic life.

Middleton sums up, "SELC will remain at the front lines protecting the Southeast's natural heritage for future generations. Thanks to our supporters and partners, we are taking bold steps to protect our health and environment."

About the Southern Environmental Law Center

SELC is a nonprofit and the largest environmental advocacy organization dedicated to preserving the Southeast's natural heritage for future generations. Focused on clean air and water and protecting forests, rural lands, mountains and coast, SELC has informed, implemented and enforced environmental law and policy for 20 years. Established in 1986, SELC has 63 staff and is headquartered in Charlottesville with offices in Chapel Hill and Asheville, North Carolina, Atlanta, and Sewanee, Tennessee. Visit SELC online at http://www.southernenvironment.org/.

Southern Environmental Law Center

CONTACT: Suzanne E. Henry of Four Leaf Public Relations LLC, office:+1-434-972-7278, mobile: +1-434-989-2108, suzanne@fourleafpr.com, for SouthernEnvironmental Law Center

Web site: http://www.southernenvironment.org/

Source: PRNewswire

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