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

"The Gulf of Mexico opened to industrial-size fish farms Thursday after federal regulators declined to oppose the plan."

"They are not cute and cuddly, but the smalltooth sawfish is getting more federal protection in Southwest Florida waters."

"President Barack Obama is creating a new federal interagency task force to coordinate the "economic and environmental resiliency" of Louisiana and the rest of the Gulf Coast region."

Shallow rivate wells in part of West Palm Beach, drilled illegally by contractors, may be exposing homeowners there to drinking water contamination. People there fear a possible cancer cluster.

Perry County, Alabama, which is very poor and almost 70 percent black, is landfilling the coal ash from a spill in Tennessee in December 2008. County leaders are glad of the revenue and jobs it will bring, but some think the community "has been too easily persuaded to take on a wealthier, whiter community’s problem."

"The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency has agreed to set limits on nutrient pollution blamed for turning Florida’s waters into algae-choked messes."

"COLUMBIA, S.C. -- State-owned utility Santee Cooper decided Monday to drop plans for a controversial coal-fired power plant in South Carolina, a move lauded by environmental groups that had criticized the facility."

"A limestone 'quarry alley' 45 miles west of downtown Louisville resembles the scarred landscapes of eastern Kentucky, flattened by blasting for coal. ... Limestone, it turns out, is the key ingredient for stripping sulfur dioxide from smokestacks, helping to reduce acid rain and asthma-inducing haze."

"Federal regulators voted [Aug. 13] to impose tough new restrictions on the commercial longline fishing fleet in the Gulf of Mexico in an attempt to protect marine turtles."