Blue Ridge Environmental Defense League

08/27/2026

“Don’t Stand Before Goliath Alone”

When a data center comes to your county, the fight can feel impossibly one-sided. Billion-dollar developers. Slick presentations. A county council meeting where it seems like the decision has already been made.

But you are not powerless, and you do not have to do this alone.

Blue Ridge Environmental Defense League has spent decades helping ordinary communities take on big industry and win. When you stand before Goliath, we stand with you. We help you organize your neighbors, understand the process, and show up prepared, bringing the best ammunition of all: the truth.

Data centers carry real and often hidden costs. Enormous water and electricity demands, strain on local infrastructure, noise, and impacts that land on residents long after the ribbon is cut. Communities deserve to know all of it before a vote is ever taken.

If a data center is being proposed in your backyard, reach out. Your voice matters most when it is organized, informed, and unafraid.

Contact us: [email protected]

08/25/2026

🚨🚨🚨
What: Public Forum on Proposed Halifax County Data Center
When: Tuesday August 25th, 2026 at 6:00pm
Where: In the Commissioners’ Meeting Room on the second floor of the Halifax County Historic Courthouse, 10 North King Street, Halifax, NC 27839.
For those unable to attend in person, the meeting will also be livestreamed on YouTube through Halifax County Government.
https://www.youtube.com/-nc3513/streams

About the Board The Board is comprised of 6 members, 3 elected by district and 3 elected at large. Commissioners serve 4-year terms. Elections are held in November of even-numbered years. Commission Goals Seek quality sustainable countywide economic growth to provide jobs and increased tax base. Ini...

08/22/2026

Northampton County NC:
The one in Skippers is a waste handling, processing, and storage facility. Link to company website: https://eri-waste.com/location
"Streamlining waste management from landfills to transportation, our comprehensive services cover landfills, rail yards, equipment leasing, and efficient disposal, ensuring environmental responsibility and operational excellence."
"Intersects with regional infrastructure handling municipal and industrial waste streams, solid waste reporting, and local sewage treatment upgrades—such as the Skippers wastewater treatment plant improvements featuring active sludge digestion basins."

From article below:
One of Hoffer’s success stories was a property on the Greensville County side of Forest Road. They built a rail spur off of the CSX rail line nearby, and now there are a few different companies operating on that site. One company, he noted, is Amrize which is a cement company that recycles coal ash from Dominion Energy.
https://www.roanoke-chowannewsherald.com/news/rezoning-delayed-for-site-that-could-host-new-railyard-f2f05eb1

08/21/2026

Sanford/Lee County Resident speaking before the City Council

August 18, 2026 - Sanford City Council Public Comment / Insufficien...

08/12/2026

"Is This Pipeline Even Necessary?"

Some places are worth standing up for. Bent Mountain is one of them.

This week on In Our Backyard, we talk with Bruce Coffey of BREDL's Preserve Bent Mountain Chapter, a group working to protect their community from the Mountain Valley Pipeline.

Bruce takes us through the full story:

What makes Bent Mountain such a special place, and why residents refuse to give it up
The route and purpose of the Mountain Valley Pipeline
The environmental and public health impacts communities are facing
How local residents organized and pushed back
Where the project stands today
The big question at the center of it all: is this pipeline even necessary?
This is what grassroots resistance looks like. Not a single hero, but a whole community that decided their land, water, and health were worth defending. Bruce closes with the most important part: how you can get involved and support the work still underway.

Listen here: https://open.spotify.com/episode/3l9HfLa9KyPKBpLBv58Wef?si=u6wocFyYQ2ScaUwkWX42iQ

07/30/2026

“Water Is at the Heart of It All”

Western New York was built around its water. The rivers, the lakes, the shoreline. Protecting all of it has never mattered more.

This week on In Our Backyard, we talk with Jennifer Fee, Director of Communications and Marketing at Buffalo Niagara Waterkeeper, about the work of defending and restoring the waterways a whole region depends on.

In this conversation, Jennifer walks us through:

• Buffalo Niagara Waterkeeper’s mission to protect and restore local waterways • The current health of the Buffalo Niagara watershed • The biggest challenges facing the region’s rivers and lakes • How restoration work is bringing damaged waterways back • The community members who have stepped up to protect these natural resources

Clean water does not protect itself. It takes organizations willing to do the long work and neighbors willing to show up. That combination is what turns a threatened watershed into a recovering one.

Listen here: https://open.spotify.com/episode/1ABEAtmQN6igxBSXbd9vT7?si=RcVdMh36TbGbBJmV6mJ7wg

07/23/2026

Facebook Caption:

Caption: “The Answer Is More Complicated Than It Looks”

Sweden has clean cities, packed public transit, and recycling that actually works. The United States has world-leading environmental research, groundbreaking clean-energy companies, and national parks that inspired conservation movements around the globe.

So why do these two countries end up with such different environmental laws? Is Sweden really as green as its reputation suggests? And does the U.S. deserve its reputation for weaker protections?

This week on In Our Backyard, we go looking for an honest answer. The episode compares:

• How each country structures its environmental systems and enforcement • Climate policy and energy production • Pollution prevention and waste reduction • Recycling, and what happens before something ever becomes trash • Public transportation and how people actually move • Forests, public lands, and protected nature • Where each country genuinely gets it right

Neither country comes out looking perfect, and neither comes out looking hopeless. That is the useful part. Understanding what works elsewhere is how communities here build the case for better policy in their own backyards.

Listen here: https://open.spotify.com/episode/1CJcovNsdwBDuEL81C6xGK?si=Mb3Z3gFKSeu3Q9RGFUsX5A

07/23/2026

🚨Asheboro NC and downstream🚨
July 22, 2026

DEQ notifies water systems of elevated 1,4-dioxane levels in Asheboro’s wastewater
RALEIGH – The North Carolina Department of Environmental Quality’s Division of Water Resources (DWR) has been notified of elevated 1,4-dioxane levels discharged from the City of Asheboro Wastewater Treatment Plant into Hasketts Creek, which empties into the Deep River within the Cape Fear River Basin.

The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency has categorized 1,4-dioxane as a likely human carcinogen, or a substance that likely can cause cancer. 1,4-Dioxane is an industrial chemical used for a variety of purposes. It is a byproduct of certain plastics manufacturing processes.

The Asheboro Wastewater Treatment Plant detected a concentration of 2,010 parts per billion (ppb) of 1,4-dioxane in a sample collected on July 10. DEQ, using EPA toxicity calculations for lifetime exposure, has determined that the average monthly concentration of 1,4-dioxane in the Asheboro discharge safe for downstream water supplies is 22 ppb or less. DWR conducted additional sampling and is waiting to confirm the results.

As part of its regular procedures, DWR sent a notification of the elevated levels to downstream drinking water utilities, including Bladen Bluffs Water System, Brunswick County, Cape Fear Public Utility Authority, the City of Dunn, the Fayetteville Public Works Commission, Harnett Regional Water, International Paper Co., Pender County, Pilgrim’s Pride Water System and the City of Sanford.

In August 2023, DWR included 1,4-dioxane limits in Asheboro’s National Pollutant Discharge Elimination System (NPDES) permit. In September 2024, the North Carolina Office of Administrative Hearings issued an order striking these limits from the permit. DEQ appealed the ruling, and EPA objected to the ruling’s removal of the 1,4-dioxane limits from the permit. On Feb. 5, the Wake County Superior Court reversed the Office of Administrative Hearings order and held that the permit limits were properly included in the permit. Asheboro has appealed the decision. The limits are stayed until the case can be heard by the Court of Appeals.

DEQ continues to monitor the levels of 1,4-dioxane discharged by wastewater treatment plants in the Cape Fear River Basin. Significant reductions have occurred at some wastewater treatment plants through a collaborative effort with the Environmental Management Commission (EMC), DEQ and municipal operators. DEQ continues to work with the remaining municipal operators.

DWR has additional information, including sampling data, online: Cape Fear River Basin 1,4-Dioxane Wastewater Discharge Data.

For More Information
Contact: Laura Oleniacz
Phone: 919-707-8604

07/17/2026

07/01/2026

"We All Live Downstream"

What does it take to protect one of the most biologically diverse river systems in North America? This week on In Our Backyard, we sit down with Jesse Demonbreun-Chapman, Executive Director and Riverkeeper for the Coosa River Basin Initiative.

The Coosa River Basin stretches across the southeastern U.S. and holds an extraordinary range of freshwater species and ecosystems, many of which exist nowhere else on Earth. But this watershed is under pressure from every direction.

In this conversation, Jesse breaks down the fight to protect it:

The mounting threats of pollution, climate change, habitat destruction, and rapid development
PFAS contamination, also known as "forever chemicals," and what it means for the water we all depend on
How Indigenous history and environmental justice are deeply tied to conservation
Restoration efforts already underway, and the community action driving them
Why "we all live downstream" is more than a saying, it is a call to responsibility
Clean water is not a privilege. It is a right worth fighting for, and it starts with the communities standing up for their own backyards.

Listen here: https://open.spotify.com/episode/1ZzP6ul61LBMuKpmwPbGyG?si=OrYdmLRPRIah6cWfPqnuyg