Displaying items by tag: nolichucky river flooding
Helene: After weeks of dredging, CSX receives stop-work order on Nolichucky Gorge railroad destroyed by tropical storm
Epic flooding from Tropical Storm Helene destroyed the CSX railroad bed along the length of the Nolichucky River Gorge near Erwin. TDEC and the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers this month ordered the transportation company to stop dredging materials from the river to repair its railroad line. Jonathan Mitchell for Hellbender Press
Company accused of illegally mining river rocks, sediment to shore up rail lines washed out by Helene
This story was originally published by Tennessee Lookout.
ERWIN — The U.S. Army Corps of Engineers and Tennessee environmental regulators ordered CSX Transportation to stop dredging the Nolichucky River Gorge for rocks and sediment being used to shore up a rail line washed away by Tropical Storm Helene.
In separate letters issued to the Fortune 500 company this month, the Corps and the Tennessee Department of Environment and Conservation (TDEC) warned, the company’s dredging was unauthorized — and noted CSX had continued dredging activities even after being put on notice last month by both agencies.
The company is prohibited from performing “any excavation or dredging of material from the Nolichucky River or its tributaries in both Tennessee and North Carolina, the Dec. 2 letter from the Corps said. CSX must “immediately cease and desist” its dredging, TDEC’s Dec. 6 letter said.
Dredging poses serious risks to the river’s aquatic life and increases the potential of downstream flooding in the future for communities that rely on the Nolichucky for outdoor recreation and the tourist dollars it brings in, a lawsuit filed by lawyers with the Southern Environmental Law Center said last month.
Helene: Governor faces pushback after using Tenncare money for disaster relief
In East Tennessee on Tuesday, Gov. Bill Lee viewed a buckled road damaged by the aftermath of Hurricane Helene. Brandon Hull/Office of the Governor via Tennessee Lookout
National health care groups warned in 2022 that the unusual Tenncare fund now being used for disaster relief would redirect dollars away from low-income enrollees
Anita Wadhwani is a senior reporter for Tennessee Lookout.
NASHVILLE — In the days after Hurricane Helene unleashed catastrophic floods across parts of East Tennessee — killing 17 and inflicting hundreds of millions of dollars in damage — Gov. Bill Lee convened a series of conference calls with his cabinet members to urge his team to “think outside the box” in how to get desperately needed capital to hard-hit rural counties.
TennCare Director Stephen Smith offered up a novel idea: tap into a special savings pool within Tennessee’s Medicaid program, which draws on a combination of state and federal funds to pay the health care bills for 1.5 million Tennesseans living in or near poverty — among them pregnant women, children, seniors and those with disabilities.
Lee, who later recounted the conversation at a news conference, went with it.
The Helene Emergency Assistance Loans (HEAL) program will direct $100 million in no-interest loans from TennCare to 13 disaster-struck Tennessee counties, tapping so-called “shared savings” funds that are unique to the state’s Medicaid program.