Monday, November 25, 2013

Duke Energy among utilities dealing with mounting evidence that coal ash is a threat to health

As evidence mounts that coal ash from power plants is a threat to the environment, one of the nation's largest electricity generators "is beginning to waver on its long-held assertion that coal ash stored at its North Carolina power plants doesn’t threaten public health," Bruce Henderson reports for The Charlotte Observer.

Duke Energy "agreed last month to pay up to $1.8 million for a water line to a low-income community in the path of groundwater contamination from its Wilmington plant," and then the state ordered the utility "to supply water to an Asheville-area home whose well was apparently contaminated by ash from the power plant there," Henderson notes.

Trace elements such as arsenic have been found at levels above state standards in groundwater "around ash ponds at all 14 of Duke’s coal-fired power plants in North Carolina," Henderson writes. "Still unsettled is how much came from natural sources, how much from ash and how far the contamination has spread." The state has sued Duke, claiming "a serious danger" to public health near the Asheville plant and the closed Riverbend plant near Charlotte. (Read more)

Coal ash is regulated largely by states. The Obama administration has moved slowly on the issue, and in late October a federal judge gave the Environmental Protection Agency two months to propose new rules on coal-ash disposal.

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