Thread: 82,000 Tons of coal ash spill into North Carolina river

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NC, Va. sign deal with Duke for Dan River cleanup

NC, Virginia sign deal with Duke Energy to cover cost of Dan River coal ash spill cleanup

By Michael Biesecker, Associated Press 17 hours ago

RALEIGH, N.C. (AP) -- Environmental and wildlife officials in North Carolina and Virginia signed an agreement with Duke Energy Monday for the cleanup of toxic coal ash from the Dan River, which flows through the two states.

The agreement requires Duke to pay any "reasonable" cost associated with the Feb. 2 spill at its power plant near Eden, which coated 70 miles of the river in gray sludge. The U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service is also a party to the deal.

Duke signed a similar agreement with the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency last month.

The nation's largest electricity company has begun the task of vacuuming up large pockets of toxic ash that settled to the bottom of the river as far downstream as Danville, Virgina. Duke must also pay for the ongoing monitoring by government agencies of the spill's impact on aquatic life.

The agreement places no cap on what the company might be required to spend. Duke said in April that it had spent $15 million on containing the spill and the immediate aftermath. But it reiterated in a regulatory filing to investors on Monday that it is unable to predict future costs for the cleanup, new laws passed in the wake of the spill or any environmental fines that might be levied against the company.

N.C. Department of Environment and Natural Resources spokeswoman Susan Massengale said Monday that the agreement provides "a process that attempts to avoid lawsuits by the parties," but does not bar the states from filing suit if the company does not uphold its commitments.

"This is an important step in the process of returning, as closely as possible, the Dan River to the condition it was before the spill," Massengale said.

Recent testing of water samples from the river show the level of contamination decreased quickly after the spill as the ash and the toxic heavy metals it contains sank to the bottom. However, environmental officials say those contaminated sediments are churned back up into the water at time of high flow, such as after a big rainstorm.

The byproduct left behind when coal is burned to generate electricity, the ash contains numerous toxic substances, including arsenic, selenium, chromium, thallium, mercury and lead. Wildlife officials will be collecting tissue samples from fish in the Dan to monitor whether the contamination works its way up the food chain. Public health officials in both states have advised residents not to eat fish caught downstream of the spill site.

Towns downstream of the spill site that rely on the river for drinking water, including Danville and South Boston in Virginia, have successfully been filtering out the contamination from the treated water supplied to residents.
"This agreement represents a significant milestone in Duke Energy's ongoing efforts to restore and monitor the Dan River and surrounding environment," the company said in a written statement. "Duke Energy is fully committed to the river's long-term health and well-being."

The recent agreements do not resolve an ongoing criminal investigation into the spill and the close relationships between Duke executives and North Carolina politicians and regulators. Federal prosecutors issued at least 23 grand jury subpoenas after the spill to Duke and state officials.

North Carolina lawmakers are currently debating a bill about what to do with Duke's 33 ash dumps at 14 power plants in North Carolina, which are located along rivers and lakes that cities and towns rely on for drinking water. State environmental officials say all of Duke's unlined waste pits, which contain more than 100 million tons of ash, are contaminating groundwater.

Duke has agreed to remove all of its remaining ash at the Eden plant and three other sites, but wants to consider options for its other facilities that could include leaving the ash where it is, capped with plastic sheeting and a layer of soil. Duke has warned lawmakers it could cost as much as $10 billion if it is forced to remove its ash at all 14 sites in North Carolina, with the company's electricity customers footing most of the bill.

http://news.yahoo.com/nc-va-sign-dea...211435483.html

NC Senate votes 45-0 for coal ash pit closure plan

NC Senate votes unanimously for plan directing Duke to close coal ash pits within 15 years

By Michael Biesecker, Associated Press 8 hours ago

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RALEIGH, N.C. (AP) -- The North Carolina Senate gave preliminary approval Tuesday to legislation ordering Duke Energy to close all of its coal ash dumps in the state by 2029.

The unanimous vote came about four months after a massive spill from a Duke plant in Eden coated 70 miles of the Dan River in toxic gray sludge.

The measure backed by Senate Leader Phil Berger, R-Rockingham, and Senate Rules Chairman Tom Apodaca, R-Henderson, requires Duke to place ash from dumps at four of its plants into lined landfills or sell it for reuse by the construction industry within five years.

A new coal ash commission and state environmental regulators would decide whether the millions of tons of ash at 10 remaining plants would also be removed or whether it could be capped and left in place. The bill also requires Duke to monitor groundwater around the landfills for 30 years.

"I think it is a change that is going to have North Carolina leading the country ... when it comes to getting rid of coal ash," said Apodaca, whose home district near Asheville contains Duke dumps state regulators say are contaminating groundwater.

Senate Democrats voted for the Republican-backed bill, even though they criticized it as being too weak. Apodaca blocked a vote on a Democratic amendment that would have barred Duke from seeking an increase in electricity rates to pay for the cleanup.

"This is not a perfect bill," said Sen. Mike Woodard, D-Durham, as he asked his colleagues to vote in favor. "I'm not going to let the perfect stand in the way of the good."

The bill faces another Senate vote Wednesday before heading to the state House. If approved there, it will go to the desk of Gov. Pat McCrory, a Republican who retired after working at Duke Energy for 29 years.

McCrory backed an earlier version of the bill that would have given more discretion to his administration's environmental agency to determine how Duke would be required to clean up its coal ash dumps and how quickly.

Last week, a lobbyist for Duke told lawmakers the company is opposed to the firm timelines included in the current legislation.

In an interview Monday, McCrory also expressed concerns about the Senate's plan to create a new commission to oversee the process, with legislative leaders appointing the majority of the board's nine members.

"I think coal ash is going in the right direction, except we do have some issues regarding the makeup of the commission because of separation of powers issues ... regarding how the commission is appointed and what the responsibilities of the commission are," McCrory said.

McCrory did not say whether he would sign the bill in its current form. He could also veto the legislation, or allow it to become law without his signature.

During debate Tuesday, Democrats questioned why the bill only explicitly requires the removal of ash from four Duke plants — Dan River, Asheville, Sutton and Riverbend. Republicans voted down amendments that would have added some of Duke's other 10 plants to the priority list, including Buck Steam Station in Salisbury.

The Associated Press reported last week that tests from Duke's own monitoring wells at the Buck plant repeatedly showed readings for levels of potentially harmful chemicals exceeding state groundwater standards. Some of those same chemicals have shown up in tests of well water from nearby homes. Duke says the underground contamination could be naturally occurring and that residents near its plant are in no danger.

Environmental groups on Tuesday criticized provisions in the Senate bill that could potentially allow Duke to leave the majority of its ash in the company's unlined pits, as long as they are drained and caped with giant plastic tarps and a layer of soil. The groups also pointed to a provision that after the expiration of a one-year moratorium would allow Duke to dispose of up to 100,000 cubic yards of toxic ash — enough to fill more than 50 Olympic-sized pools — into unlined structural fill projects such as those used to level land for new highways.

"Placing a tarp over the ash and filling in the pit with dirt is not an adequate cleanup plan," said Peter Harrison, a staff attorney for environmental group Waterkeeper Alliance. "As we've seen at the Buck Steam Station, ash in unlined lagoons could be putting people's drinking water at risk."

http://news.yahoo.com/nc-senate-vote...214152777.html

EPA: Duke done dredging coal ash from NC river

EPA: Duke finishes cleaning large pockets of coal ash from river after spill at NC plant

By Michael Biesecker, Associated Press July 17, 2014 4:45 PM

RALEIGH, N.C. (AP) -- Duke Energy has completed removal of large pockets of coal ash from the Dan River months after a massive spill at a North Carolina power plant, federal environmental officials said Thursday.

The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency's on-scene coordinator, Myles Bartos, said Duke had dredged up about 2,500 tons of ash and contaminated sediment that settled against a dam in Danville, Virginia. Another 500 tons was recovered from other pockets in the river and settling tanks at two municipal water treatment plants in Virginia.

Coal ash contains an array of such toxic heavy metals as arsenic, mercury and selenium.

Duke estimates about 39,000 tons of coal ash spewed into the Dan after a drainage pipe collapsed Feb. 2 at a waste dump in Eden, turning the river gray for more than 70 miles. Bartos said the cleanup is considered complete, though Duke has recovered only a fraction of the total spilled.

Bartos said recent testing of both the river water and bottom sediment has shown concentrations of toxic metals below federal limits and close to what was likely present before the spill. State and federal agencies will continue to monitor the environmental health of the river.

Bartos said if more large deposits of contamination are later discovered, Duke will be required to remove them.

"We continue to do some monitoring and will base our decisions for actions on the data collected," Bartos said. "But I don't think there will ever be a removal again in the river. I think it has been adequately removed."

Headquartered in Charlotte, Duke is the nation's largest electricity company.

In past statements to investors, executives have said they do not expect costs incurred from the cleanup effort to be large enough to affect the $50 billion company's profitability.

Duke spokesman Jeff Brooks stressed that even though the cleanup effort is complete, the company is still in the early stages of developing a study with the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service to track the long-term impact of the spill on aquatic life.

"This is just one aspect of our response," Brooks said. "We're not going away from the Dan River, and we continue to be committed to the communities along the Dan River. We'll be there for the future, and we'll work to keep the Dan River moving forward and remaining healthy."

Environmental watchdog groups pointed out Thursday that Duke recovered less than 10 percent of the coal ash it spilled. They said the contamination still poses a threat, especially at times when the river flow is high and bottom sedimembient churns up into the water.

"Where did it all go?" asked Frank Holleman, a senior attorney with the Southern Environmental Law Center. "They have not finished the cleanup. They just stopped."

http://news.yahoo.com/epa-duke-done-...174827828.html

http://www.alipac.us/f19/n-c-legisla...al-ash-309717/

Feds override NC on draining coal ash dumps

NC letter allowing Duke Energy to drain coal ash dumps into rivers earns rebuke from EPA

By Michael Biesecker, Associated PressOctober 3, 2014 10:31 PM

RALEIGH, N.C. (AP) -- Federal environmental officials spurred North Carolina regulators to reverse a policy allowing Duke Energy to drain massive amounts of polluted wastewater from its coal ash dumps directly into the state's rivers and lakes, according to documents.

The Southern Environmental Law Center released documents Friday showing that the North Carolina Department of Environment and Natural Resources on Aug. 28 quietly signed off on Duke's plan to start emptying liquids from all of its 33 coal ash dumps across the state through existing drain pipes at the facilities.

The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency responded with a lengthy memo on Sept. 16, expressing concern that Duke's draining would likely violate its water quality permit. Duke's state wastewater discharge permits require the company to test the water discharged from its pipes for levels of toxic materials twice a year.

"The applicable permits only require monitoring for a limited number of pollutants once every six months," wrote Mark J. Nuhfer, an EPA official at the agency's regional headquarters in Atlanta. "As a result, Duke Energy could draw the ponds down completely without taking a single sample to assess effluent quality, permit compliance, or water-quality impact."

The EPA agrees with the state's goal of draining the dumps, but Nuhfer said the company should be required to provide more information about the potential environmental impacts of releasing such large amounts of wastewater in a short period of time.

Following the EPA's letter, state regulators sent a new letter to Duke on Sept. 19, changing its earlier position that the draining was allowed.

North Carolina's oversight of Duke's coal ash dumps has been under intense scrutiny since a huge Feb. 2 spill at one of the company's facilities turned 70 miles of the Dan River an unnatural shade of battleship gray.

Coal ash ponds work as a primitive water treatment system, allowing the ash generated from burning coal to settle to the bottom as the less contaminated water at the top drains into a nearby body of water. Therefore, the sludge at the bottom of the pond is potentially far more contaminated than the shallower depths. Coal ash contains numerous toxic heavy metals, including lead, arsenic and mercury.

Drew Elliot, spokesman for the state environmental department, said the agency was simply following an Aug. 1 executive order from Gov. Pat McCrory directing it to move ahead with the closure of Duke's ash pits. The state's letter directed Duke to drain the ponds only down to the depth where the ash has settled.

"We have been keeping the public informed throughout our implementation of the governor's executive order to clean up coal ponds as quickly as possible considering the threat they pose to our waterways, especially from catastrophic failure as we saw at Dan River," Elliot said. "Obviously to excavate ash from a pond you must remove the water."

Prior to becoming governor, McCrory worked at Duke Energy for 29 years. The Republican has repeatedly denied his administration has provided any special treatment to his former employer.

However, state legislators in McCrory's own party have openly questioned his handling of the issue, approving legislation in August that creates a new state commission to oversee the closure of Duke's ash dumps. McCrory has threatened to sue over the law because he won't be allowed to appoint a majority of the seats on the nine-member panel, which he claims violates the state Constitution.

In March, state regulators cited Duke for illegally dumping 61 million gallons of contaminated wastewater into the Cape Fear River after an environmental group reported the company was using big pumps to drain one of its coal ash ponds.

Frank Holleman, a senior attorney for the Southern Environmental Law Center, said the state's Aug. 28 letter would have given Duke free rein to dump far larger amounts of contaminated water without public scrutiny.

"Thankfully, EPA has stopped (the state) from disregarding its own permits and from failing to protect North Carolina's rivers and clean water," Holleman said. "This shows once again that North Carolina's citizens cannot count on DENR to protect our communities and clean water."

In a letter to the state earlier this week, Duke reiterated that the new law requires it to remove its ash from four high hazard sites by the end of 2019.

"Requiring free-standing water to remain in these basins will not only delay the process for drying out the ash that is necessary before any excavation can occur, but as a practical matter could make meeting this deadline impossible," wrote Harry Sideris, a senior vice president at Duke.

http://news.yahoo.com/feds-override-...225505074.html

http://www.alipac.us/f19/duke-energy...sunday-315690/

http://www.alipac.us/f19/criminal-ch...illion-317693/

Duke Energy pleads guilty in court to environmental crimes, agrees to pay $102 million fine

Published May 14, 2015 Associated Press

GREENVILLE, S.C. – Duke Energy has pleaded guilty in federal court to environmental crimes and has agreed to pay $102 million in fines and restitution over years of illegal pollution leaking from coal-ash dumps at five North Carolina power plants.

The company's plea to nine misdemeanor counts involving violations of the Clean Water Act was part of a negotiated settlement with federal prosecutors.

Prosecutors say the nation's largest electricity company engaged in unlawful dumping at coal-fired power plants in Eden, Moncure, Asheville, Goldsboro and Mt. Holly.

The investigation into Duke began last February after a pipe collapsed under a coal ash dump at the Eden plant, coating 70 miles of the Dan River in gray sludge. However, prosecutors said that Duke's illegal dumping had been going back for years, to at least 2010.

http://www.foxnews.com/us/2015/05/14...es-to-pay-102/

Costs of closing, cleaning toxic coal ash pits grows clearer

Two years after one of the worst coal ash spills in U.S. history, the country's largest electricity company is digging up and hauling away the residue

By Emery p. Dalesio, AP Business Writer43 minutes ago

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In this Thursday, Jan. 14, 2016, photo, coal ash is removed from the Dan River Steam Station in Eden, N.C., to be transported by rail to a permanent site in Virginia. Duke Energy Corp. is digging up and hauling away from riverbanks the toxic coal residues two years after one of the worst coal-ash spills in U.S. history. (AP Photo/Gerry Broome)

EDEN, N.C. (AP) -- Giant earthmoving machines beep and grind as they drop 17-ton scoops of coal ash and dirt into dozens of railroad cars lined up for two-thirds of a mile at a site along the Virginia-North Carolina border, where the country's largest electricity company was responsible for one of the worst spills of the toxic, liquefied waste in U.S. history.

Duke Energy Corp. will ship 1.5 million tons of residue from decades of burning coal for electricity to a contracted landfill about 130 miles away in central Virginia. The utility built 2 miles of railroad track just to connect existing rail lines with the excavation site.

Once the contents of the pit roughly a quarter mile from the Dan River are emptied, it'll be lined with waterproof material so heavy metals won't filter into water underground or the river. Then it will be refilled with much of the 1.5 million tons of liquefied coal ash taken from two other pits closer to the river's edge.

A burst pipe at one of them triggered the disaster two years ago this week and led officials to re-examine how they plan to cope with similar dangers at basins around the country.

The nation's cleanup price tag, which utility customers may be asked to pay, already is pushing into the billions.

Many who live near coal ash pits fear the waste allows heavy metals to filter into their groundwater, and they say it's past time to move the stuff. For the past 10 months, Duke Energy has been providing Deborah Graham's family with bottled water after the state health department warned that her well water near another Duke site was contaminated with toxic heavy metals.

"We want it fixed," said Graham, who wants the pits dug out and the waste moved from Buck power plant, her neighbor, 40 miles northeast of Charlotte. "No one should have to look at their faucet with fear."

Coal ash byproducts include arsenic, chromium, lead, and boron. Duke Energy's lawyers admit that over the past 90 years, coal ash has tainted groundwater below the unlined basins at its Buck plant, but they deny that it has polluted neighboring water wells like Graham's.

The company last year agreed to pay $7 million to settle allegations of groundwater pollution at its coal ash pits. Duke Energy also pleaded guilty to criminal violations of federal water pollution laws and agreed to pay $102 million in fines and remediation.

More than 230 power plants in 33 of the country's 48 continental states have coal-ash impoundments, according to the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency. Utilities in Georgia and Virginia say EPA rules that took effect last year are the reason they're closing all their coal-ash basins.

The tighter standards took years to develop after the country's largest spill, the 2008 dam collapse at a Tennessee Valley Authority site in Kingston, Tennessee. It destroyed 40 homes and cost more than $1.1 billion over six years to clean up. The rules came out after the Dan River spill pushed North Carolina legislators to force cleanup ahead of the EPA rules.

Now that enforcement is coming, utilities can be expected to follow a common industrial practice — overstating cleanup costs to pressure lawmakers and rule-makers to tread lightly, said Lisa Evans, an attorney for the environmental group Earthjustice.

"Industry will complain that it's going to cost millions and millions more dollars to comply with a particular regulation than you actually see once the regulation is in place and the wheels start turning and there's competition and innovation," Evans said. "There's lots of companies competing for the cleanup jobs and the construction of landfills."

Meanwhile, South Carolina's three utilities also are moving coal ash from riverside power plants after lawsuits and other pressure by environmentalists. Santee Cooper and SCE&G have said they don't expect to pass on costs to ratepayers, but that could change.

Duke Energy, however, said it will seek permission to raise power bills in both Carolinas to pay for the cleanup.

The utility set aside about $3.5 billion for expected cleanup costs in the two states, but the EPA rules added $448 million in new liabilities through September, the company said in its most recent earnings report.

If that $4 billion were passed on to ratepayers, the average North Carolina household could see electricity prices rise by an average of about $18 a year over 25 years, according to a calculation by accountants for an independent state agency that represents consumers in rate proceedings.

North Carolina environmental regulators haven't yet decided which sites will be excavated and carted to new, lined burying grounds. Elsewhere, wastewater will be pumped off the pits into nearby rivers before the basins are covered with waterproof liners, soil and grass.

"But we will do everything we can to keep cost impacts as manageable as possible in any potential cost recovery filing that we might make in the future," Duke Energy spokesman Jeff Brooks said in an email.

The company said excavating and reburying the coal ash in lined landfills could cost as much as $10 billion. That's more than Duke Energy spent to scrap a quarter of its coal-burning power capacity and open 10 new natural gas and coal plants in North Carolina, Florida and Indiana since 2009, the company said.

It might not cost that much, but it's a starting point for understanding the ripple effects of the North Carolina experience with coal ash, "which I would argue are indicative of what rest of the country is going to see," said John Daniels, an authority on handling coal ash and chairman of the civil and environmental engineering department at The University of North Carolina at Charlotte.

Graham said she bitterly opposes Duke Energy raising rates to pay for removing what she believes is a threat to her home and family.

"The customer has already paid for that electricity when they pay the power bill. This is their trash left over," Graham said.

http://news.yahoo.com/costs-closing-...143329959.html
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