N.C. solons grill Duke, state officials about coal ash in wake of spill that could happen many places

While new coal ash disposal regulations by the Environmental Protection Agency aren't due to be released until December, most states might benefit from a hearing like one Monday in North Carolina, where state lawmakers asked officials to explain how coal-ash disposal, specifically from Duke Energy, is being monitored, and how it can affect the state and its residents, Bertrand Gutierrez reports for the Winston-Salem Journal. Duke has 106 million tons of coal ash at its 14 plant sites and 31 coal-ash dumps. On Feb. 2, up to 39,000 tons of the sludge went into the Dan River. (Journal graphic: North Carolina coal ash ponds)

George Everett, Duke’s director of environmental and legislative affairs, apologized for the spill, and said the company took full responsibility for it, but said he could not answer how much it would cost to clean up the river, but that Duke customers would pay for it, Gutierrez writes. Everett was grilled by "about the direct cause of the ash spill: the collapse of a decades-old storm-water pipe made of corrugated steel."

"Four lawsuits filed in 2012 by the state Department of Environment and Natural Resources against Duke Energy assert that coal-waste dumps at 11 of Duke’s 14 coal-fired power plants illegally leak into North Carolina waterways in violation of federal clean-water laws and that monitoring wells at all the power plants show levels of potentially toxic heavy metals that exceed state-mandated standards," Gutierrez notes. (Journal graphic)

Panelists asked how other states dealt with spills, and promised to push legislation to deal with coal ash,  Gutierrez writes. Of the meeting, Rep. Pricey Harrison (D-Greensboro) told Gutierrez: “I saw a bunch of legislators who actually never thought that environmental protections were important or that regulations were important, until they saw what happens when you don’t regulate a dangerous substance like coal ash, and I think that they’ll maybe be a little more thoughtful about all this antiregulatory pushing coming out of the Legislature. Finally getting some action on coal ash … is a huge step forward.'” (Read more)