Report: Coal ash fouling N.C. waters

Coal ash from Duke Energy's Belews Creek Steam Station in Stokes County and five other places in North Carolina is contaminating the state's rivers, wetlands, creeks and ground­water, according to an analysis released yester­day by two nonprofit environmental organizations.

The six are among 31 waste sites in 14 states that Earthjustice and the Environmental Integrity Project identified as causing coal-ash contamination.

Officials with the two groups said during a teleconference that these sites should be added to a list of 70 that the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency has already identified as part of a process to define coal ash as a hazardous material.

If a definition is established, federal regulations on its disposal will follow. However, that process is tied up in the Office of Management and Budget, according to Jeff Stant, who works for the Environmental Integrity Project.

"This problem needs an immediate national solution in the form of federally enforceable standards that protect every community near coal-ash dump sites," Stant said. "The data are overwhelming, and these 31 sites sound a clear warning that the EPA must heed before much more damage is done."

Coal ash is a powdery substance that is the byproduct of burning coal for energy. It contains such metals and chemicals as arsenic, mercury and selenium.

Using data submitted by Duke Energy Corp. to the N.C. Department of Environmental and Natural Resources, the report found coal-combustion waste in the Belews Creek plant's two landfills -- the now-closed Pine Hall Road landfill and the newly permitted Craig Road landfill. Both landfills are about a mile from the plant.

Contamination was also found in the wells at the plant's flue-gas desulfurization residue landfill, which stores the waste produced by scrubbers, according to the report. Scrubbers help control air pollution. Duke Energy added two scrubbers in 2008 to reduce sulfur-dioxide emissions.

Andy Thompson, a spokesman for Duke Energy, said that the company did exceed state groundwater standards at the Pine Hall landfill, and in response, worked with the state to place a synthetic cap over the landfill.

He said he did not know about the findings at the two other landfills.

"We'll have to look into that," he said. "I'm not sure where they were getting their data. We need to do more investigation on that."

The other North Carolina sites listed in the report are:

• The Asheville Steam Electric Plant in Buncombe County.

• The Sutton Steam Plant in Wilmington.

• The Lee Steam Plant in Goldsboro.

• The Cape Fear Steam Plant in Moncure.

• A landfill in Rocky Mount.

Donna Lisenby, the Upper Watauga Riverkeeper, said she is troubled that Duke Energy has not done a better job disposing of coal ash.

In the 1970s and '80s, high levels of selenium discharged by the plant were found in Belews Lake, eradicating several species of fish.

"It's remarkable to us that Duke Energy has learned nothing from the '80s and continues to pollute ground and surface water in Stokes County," Lisenby said.

Thompson said the groups that wrote the report are pushing an agenda.

"They'd like to see coal ash classified as a hazardous material," he said. "We certainly recognize that the EPA is evaluating this and going through the process. We certainly believe that coal should be regulated as a nonhazardous material."

Coal-ash disposal gained attention in 2008 when about 1 billion gallons of ash and water from a Tennessee Valley Authority Fossil Plant in east Tennessee spilled into the Emory River.

Stant said that spill has become the "poster child" for the damage that coal ash can wreak. However, he said there are hundreds of other sites in the country leaking coal ash.

Avner Vengosh, an associate professor in the division of earth and ocean sciences at Duke University in Durham, studied the coal-ash spill in Tennessee.

"The important thing to emphasize is that the concept of clean coal is extremely misleading. You can prevent or reduce emissions of sulfur or mercury to the atmosphere, but the material is not disappearing," Vengosh said. "So instead of gas, it's turning into a solid and that's the ash."

lodonnell@wsjournal.com


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