Land swap could allow pipeline to cross the Appalachian Trail
A land swap with the federal government could allow the Mountain Valley Pipeline to cross the Appalachian Trail. The U.S. Department of the Interior could allow the natural gas company to cross the Appalachian Trail at the top of Peters Mountain near the border of Virginia and West Virginia in exchange for land next to Jefferson National Forest owned by Mountain Valley.
Before the plan goes through it would have to be approved by several federal agencies. The land swap would push the completion of the 303-mile pipeline to next year.
WNC athlete finishes second at Grandma’s Marathon
A runner who trains at ZAP Endurance, a non-profit training center for post-collegiate, Olympic hopefuls in Western North Carolina, came in second place at Grandma’s Marathon last Saturday. Andrew Colley finished the race with a personal best of 2:12:12 and set a new ZAP record, bettering the fastest marathon time recorded by a ZAP athlete by 1:01.
Colley closed a more than 4-minute gap to reach the second place finish, crossing the finish line just 17 seconds after the winner of the race. Grandma’s Marathon is held each year in Duluth, Minnesota. Dominic Ondoro set the course record in 2014 with a time of 2:09:06.
Is this the future? One of India’s biggest cities is running out of water
Experts agree that climate change will impact the world, and even the regions of the United States, in different ways. While some areas of the planet may see increased rainfall others will experience more frequent drought, for example. That scenario is playing out right now in Chennai, India, a city of over 10 million people. Satellite images of the rain-fed reservoir, Lake Puzhal, that provides Chennai with water, shows a near-dry lake basin. Another, smaller reservoir, Chembarambakkam Lake, is also going dry.
Chennai should be in the middle of monsoon-season right now. But the rains have not arrived and an extreme heat wave is exacerbating conditions. Instead, people stand in long lines for water and restaurants are forced to refuse customers. NPR reports that a man was killed in a fight over water. The government has sent water tankers to residential areas but some people in the hardest-hit areas have abandoned their homes and moved in with relatives. Climate change experts in India blame the crisis on “a toxic mix of bad governance and climate change.”
