Duke, legislature must confront contamination near coal-ash dumps
Published April 29, 2015
Editorial by Winston-Salem Journal, April 28, 2015.
Here in North Carolina, we take clean water for granted - until we can’t.
Some residents near Duke Energy coal ash dumps, including the one at Belews Creek, have been advised by letters from the state not to drink or cook with water from their wells, The Associated Press recently reported. The state Department of Environment and Natural Resources has said that tests of 87 private wells near eight Duke plants revealed contamination with toxic heavy metals.
The contamination is not thought to be the result of last year’s coal ash spill in the Dan River. Rather, it may spring from coal ash dumps that Duke has been maintaining on its property.
Duke stores more than 150 million tons of coal ash in 32 dumps at 14 power plants.
DENR discovered the contamination thanks to a state law, passed last year, requiring wells within 1,000 feet of Duke’s coal ash dumps across the state to be tested. About 145 private wells have been sampled since October, according to the AP.
One of the chemicals found in some of the wells is vanadium, which occurs naturally in oil and coal. It was found in the wells at readings as high as 86 times the state groundwater standard, the AP reported. Vanadium is "possibly carcinogenic to humans," according to the International Agency for Research on Cancer.
Elevated levels of antimony and manganese – toxic chemicals found in coal ash – have also been found in water collected from a drinking well that serves Duke’s Buck plant.
It’s not been conclusively determined that the source of the contamination is Duke’s coal ash pits. “Based on the state’s test results we’ve reviewed thus far, we have no indication that Duke Energy plant operations have influenced neighbors’ well water,” Duke spokeswoman Erin Culbert told the AP.
But John Suttles, a senior attorney at the Southern Environmental Law Center, believes differently. “Duke’s coal ash pits are leaking toxic pollutants into groundwater,” Suttles told the AP.
Duke would be required to provide residents with an alternative water supply if its coal ash dumps are determined to be the source of the groundwater contamination, Tom Reeder, the assistant secretary overseeing water quality for the state, told the AP.
Some might prefer to minimize the damage, saying that the effect of these chemicals is hyped. It’s true that it’s best not to panic, but the damage that may have been done needs to be taken seriously. There’s too much at stake.
This is a wake-up call to the state – one of several following last year’s coal ash spill - and a reminder of why we have laws protecting the environment in the first place.
Legislation in the wake of the coal ash spill requires Duke to move or cap these dumps by 2029. That may be cutting Duke a bit too much slack.
Duke needs to clean it all up quickly and quickly take steps to prevent future spills. And the legislature needs to nail it all down with rules that are ironclad. Public health, especially of our children, is too serious to play games with.
