Duke coal-ash spill could spur tougher regulations

The mess in North Carolina involving the Duke Energy spill that leaked as much as 39,000 tons of coal ash into the Dan River could have one positive outcome. It could finally be the necessary evil to spur the Environmental Protection Agency into creating stronger new rules regulating the industry. EPA, which has repeatedly delayed finalizing coal-ash disposal rules before setting a Dec. 19 deadline, "reviewed more than 450,000 public comments on its proposed overall regulation and a spokeswoman said the eventual new rule will 'ensure stronger oversight of the structural integrity of impoundments in order to prevent future accidents,'" Valerie Bauerlein reports for The Wall Street Journal. (Associated Press photo: Coal ash removed from the Dan River after the Feb. 2 spill) 

Duke, which was ordered by a judge to remove sources of contamination from the river, has said it will do so, but expects customers to pay to move the ash ponds away from water supplies. A federal grand jury on Tuesday was scheduled "to question Duke and state regulators about oversight of the pond as part of a criminal investigation by the U.S. attorney's office for the Eastern District of North Carolina," Bauerlein writes. "Prosecutors are reviewing records, photos and emails exchanged between Duke and state regulators about the spill. Duke said it is cooperating in the investigation."

Without federal rules, states are "administering a mishmash of regulations that have been little updated since coal-ash ponds proliferated in the 1950s," Bauerlein writes. "EPA estimates there were about 600 ponds and 300 landfills at 495 coal-fired power plants nationwide as of 2010. The Utility Solid Waste Activities Group says that the EPA counts some secondary basins used for cleaning and storing water as coal-ash ponds, though, and that the number of actual ponds used for wet coal ash is much smaller. The EPA has deemed 45 coal-ash ponds nationwide as 'high hazard potential' because of structural problems. A dozen of the hazard sites belong to Duke Energy in North Carolina." (Read more)