While residents and environmentalists urge Duke Energy to clean up its coal ash pits, North Carolina’s biggest utility — and the governor’s former workplace — just got another pass from the legislature.
Duke will likely not have to clean up seven of its unlined coal ash pits, where the byproduct of coal-fired power plants is stored. Instead, the company can opt to simply fortify its dams and pipe drinking water to nearby residents. The chemicals and heavy metals in coal ash, which include mercury and arsenic, can leach into local water supplies, especially since it is usually mixed with water into a slurry.
In 2014, despite Duke’s assurances that the storage ponds were safe, a dam ruptured and sent thousands of tons of toxic sludge into the Dan River, forcing regulators to deal with the threat of future contamination — and the results of water testing that show nearby communities already have tainted wells.
Under legislation passed shortly after the Dan River spill, the company would have been required to clean up all its storage sites. But new, less demanding legislation passed the House on Thursday evening and is expected to be signed by Gov. Pat McCrory (R), who worked at Duke for 28 years before entering politics....
http://thinkprogress.org/climate/2016/07/01/3794935/duke-doesnt-have-to-clean-up-its-ash/
