The sight of wind turbines atop Roanoke County's highest mountain -- a view dreamed of by some and dreaded by others -- is at least three years away. Invenergy, a Chicago-based wind energy company with plans to build 15 to 18 giant windmills on Poor Mountain, has pushed its target date to 2015.

VIRGINIA BEACH Residents near the intersection of Rosemont Road and South Plaza Trail are now free to drink the water again after new testing did not show E. coli bacteria.

Virginia has been forced to adopt stricter rules for harvesting shellfish during summer months, beginning this week, after a second case surfaced of a person getting sick from eating oysters tainted by a dangerous bacteria called vibrio.

NEWPORT NEWS A controversial piece of property loaded with nontidal wetlands that was the subject of a Supreme Court case is back in trouble, and the issue again is environmental protection, or lack thereof. The Newdunn tract, as it is called, measures about 42 acres and runs along the busy Jefferson Avenue corridor in Newport News, also visible to motorists going west on Interstate 64.

VIRGINIA BEACH A water sample taken during routine testing found E. coli bacteria in a single sample taken near the intersection of Rosemont Road and South Plaza Trail, the city announced in a news release this morning.

VIRGINIA BEACH Elaina Grimaldi, waiting to be honored for her art, leaned toward her mother. “Can you tell me when the mayor gets here, because I don’t know what he looks like,” the 8-year-old whispered.

 
NORFOLK
A fourth-grade class from Camp Allen Elementary School has won an international competition to name the Wildlife Center of Virginia's newest peregrine falcon.

NAGS HEAD, N.C. Swimming advisories at two Dare County locations have been lifted after tests show the bacteria levels have dropped below the state and Environmental Protection Agency's standards. The first advisory was posted May 9 at the end of Colington Drive in Kill Devil Hills. The second advisory was posted May 16 at Jockey's Ridge on the sound.

RALEIGH, N.C.  A preliminary report by the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service says a wind farm proposed for eastern North Carolina could kill up to 20 bald eagles each year. The News & Observer of Raleigh reported the estimate is based on only five months of bird counts in Beaufort County. The service wants to collect data for at least a year.

BALTIMORE Deteriorating water quality and summer heat combined to kill off more than a third of seagrasses in coastal bays along the Eastern Shore, Maryland and Virginia officials announced Tuesday. Seagrass acreage dropped 35 percent between July 2010 and May 2011, including nearly all of the grass beds in the Assawoman Bay and the Isle Wight Bay, according to figures by several groups.