coal burning electricity 5 articles

The Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) said Thursday that it and Duke Energy of North Carolina agreed on a plan to clean up the energy company’s massive coal ash spill that flooded the Dan River with about 40,000 tons of toxic coal waste February 2. According to the terms of the agreement, the EPA will supervise Duke Energy’s spill cleanup efforts. The North Carolina Department of the Environment and Natural Resources, the Virginia Department of Environmental Quality, and federal wildlife officials will also provide input and consultation. Duke is required to reimburse the EPA for all costs the agency incurs in ... Read More

Duke Energy’s CEO Lynn Good said that its customers will pay the costs of cleaning up dozens of the company’s toxic waste sites throughout North Carolina, many of which are contaminating the groundwater with arsenic and heavy metals. Last week, a North Carolina Superior Court judge ruled in favor of the Southern Environmental Law Center, ordering Duke to take “immediate action” to stop its 33 coal ash ponds across the state from further contaminating the groundwater with arsenic, mercury, lead, and several other toxic heavy metals and contaminants. The order was issued after one of Duke’s coal ash ponds spilled ... Read More

While North Carolina environmental regulators have been downplaying the risks posed by Duke Energy’s massive coal ash spill, U.S. officials said Tuesday that the highly toxic coal ash has coated the bottom of the Dan River up to 70 miles downstream of the spill site. U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service officials said that near Duke Energy’s Dan River facility, the toxic sludge has formed a giant pile 75 feet long and 5 feet deep. More than 82,000 tons of coal ash containing arsenic, heavy metals, and other toxins flowed into the Dan River Feb. 2 from a 27-acre ash pond ... Read More

The North Carolina Department of Environment and Natural Resources asked a judge last week to throw out its own proposed settlement with Duke Energy over pollution leaking from waste dumps at its power plants. The state agency requested the action the day after an Associated Press (AP) story was published, describing the settlement as a “sweetheart deal” between state regulators and Duke Energy, the nation’s largest electrical company. The proposed settlement would have had Duke pay fines of just $99,111 for pollution that spilled from coal ash dumps in Asheville and Charlotte. State regulators and Duke reached the settlement before ... Read More

CHARLOTTE, N.C. – A Charlotte-based energy supplier blamed a broken storm water pipe at a shuttered power plant for spilling up to 82,000 tons of toxic coal ash into the Dan River near the Virginia border. Duke Energy Corp. said that coal ash, a waste product created  by burning coal to generate electricity, spilled into the river from a 27-acre ash pond at the Dan River Steam Station about 30 miles north of Greensboro. The plant has been inactive since 2012, but the site was never cleaned up. The company said that a 48-inch pipe underneath the ash pond broke ... Read More