North Carolina cannot allow the state's electrical utilities to walk away from the coal-ash ponds they have produced at some of their generating plants.
Progress Energy, which serves much of the eastern half of this state, has announced plans to convert a coal-fired plant near Wilmington to natural gas by 2014. That is certainly a step in the right direction for cleaner air.
Of concern, however, are the two ash ponds that serve the 600-megawatt Sutton Electric Plant. They won't be needed after the 2014 conversion, and the state has no explicit regulations concerning their future after that point.
In fairness to Progress, the company has not said anything to make us believe it will act irresponsibly regarding the ponds that store the residue of the 1.5 million tons of coal burned every year at the plant. On the other hand, Progress also hasn't said what it will do with the ponds.
Coal ash is highly toxic. It is loaded with metals that, when they leach into the groundwater, can make us all sick. Worse yet, coal-ash ponds have been known to fail. In 2008, more than 1 billion gallons of coal-ash slurry escaped from a Tennessee Valley Authority pond and buried an adjoining 400-acre tract as deep as six feet in sludge.
Since that catastrophe, federal and state regulators have toughened some rules. But the General Assembly has not significantly strengthened state law. Attempts to do so have been defeated after lobbying by the utilities.
Right now, it is hard to believe that the state does not have an explicitly detailed and mandatory process to handle the very situation involving the Progress ash ponds affected by the Sutton conversion. But there are no such laws.
The conversion of the Sutton plant should provide the 2011 legislature with the impetus it needs to address the question of what happens to these ponds when they are no longer needed.
There are several options. They can be capped and allowed to dry out gradually. That's favored by the utilities. But that approach can be risky, especially at a site, such as Sutton, where state regulators have already found environmental problems.
Another expensive, and maybe impractical, solution is to truck the ash out of the site.
This is not an issue that the state can continue to ignore. The safest, cleanest approach must be found because there are 13 ash ponds in this state, and coal will continue to be a power source here.
The legislature must address the issue.
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