Even "baby steps" are commendable when it comes to environmental protection and the state's major utilities.
The N.C. Division of Water Quality has ordered Duke Energy and Progress Energy to begin testing the groundwater around their ash ponds in the state. If early indications are any predictor, the utilities are likely to find that toxic metals present in coal ash have leached into our water supply.
Environmentalists have applauded the state's decision but also said that it is only a baby step toward what really needs to be done. That's probably so, but once the first test results are known -- and that should be within a matter of weeks -- the state will have a better factual base for taking one of two courses.
Most likely, the tests will provide regulators with ammunition to call for more thorough testing and possibly stricter ash-storage regulations. Or, the tests will show that the ash ponds are fine, that they pose no threat to our health and that continued monitoring is all that is needed.
Based on preliminary testing in the area of some ash ponds, we expect bad news. The Charlotte Observer recently cited several sources who indicated that preliminary testing has found problems. And some environmentalists make a logical case that the toxic metals have found their way into some surface water, too.
North Carolina has long benefited from the low electricity rates its utilities have charged because coal is a less expensive fuel. But coal ash is an environmental disaster in waiting if it is not properly stored. Progress is phasing out coal, and Duke is closing several old coal plants while also building a major new coal plant west of Charlotte.
Coal-ash storage ponds have burst and flooded neighborhoods, most recently in Tennessee in 2008. And the toxic metals in the ash have been shown to leach into groundwater.
The state ordered testing farther away from the ash ponds as a way of determining how widespread the problem is. If the results show contamination, the state should continue to order expanded testing to find just how wide a problem we have. And environmental groups are to be commended for paying to test surface waters on their own. The state must give serious study to those findings, too.
The bottom line here is that the state cannot blithely accept the word of the utilities on the potential danger here. The testing must be done, and the extent of the problem must be determined. Then the public will know better how to proceed with future coal-ash storage.
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