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

"BP crews raced to protect the Gulf of Mexico coastline as a remote sub tried to shut off an underwater oil well gushing 42,000 gallons a day from the site of a wrecked drilling platform."

"A slow-motion environmental disaster may be in the making with the discovery Saturday that 42,000 gallons a day of crude oil is spewing from a well on the bottom of the Gulf of Mexico near where a huge drilling rig sank last week -- and it could be months before it's stopped."

"Environmental groups have petitioned the Obama administration to add 404 species from rivers in the southeastern United States to the Endangered Species List."

"As hope dimmed for the lives of 11 crew members missing since a drilling rig exploded in flames in the Gulf of Mexico, authorities turned their focus to controlling an oil spill that could threaten the fragile ecosystem of the Louisiana and Mississippi coasts." Latest news accounts vary on how much oil, if any, may still be seeping to
the surface from the deepwater well.
 

"U.S. Environmental Protection Agency inspectors say a large ash pond at LG&E's Mill Creek power plant is close enough to homes and a school to be classified as high risk."

The U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service commissioned a panel of experts to draw up maps and recommendations on how to save the Florida panther -- then buried the report.

"A new report by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention has confirmed a new strain of norovirus, which has sickened dozens of people and forced the closure of several oyster harvest areas in the Louisiana area." Most of the beds have been reopened after tests proved them safe.

"A federal judge in Miami on Wednesday threatened the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency with contempt of court in a ruling that accuses the agency of ignoring federal Clean Water Act requirements in Florida's Everglades."

"An 18,000 gallon spill of crude oil from a pipeline into the Delta National Wildlife Refuge has personnel from the U.S. Coast Guard, the state of Louisiana, and the Cypress Pipe Line Company scrambling to contain the spreading mess."

North Carolina "largely ignores millions of tons of ash from coal-fired power plants that threatens to contaminate N.C. groundwater, lakes and streams, the N.C. Sierra Club says in a report today."