North Carolina Coal Ash Bill Pending

By Brian Sewell

On July 14, the N.C. Senate voted unanimously to reject the state House’s revised version of the Coal Ash Management Plan, which weakened the cleanup requirements in the Senate’s original bill. Now, a committee with members of both chambers must craft a compromise bill.

Sen. Tom Apodaca, who sponsored the Senate bill, said the House-approved bill contained multiple dealbreakers including a provision that could allow Duke Energy more time to close ponds if the utility claimed the timeline was not economically feasible.

While the negotiations have prevented the bill from reaching Gov. Pat McCrory’s desk and could lead to improvements, environmental groups see both versions and their many similarities as being too weak to fully address the state’s coal ash pollution problem.

Both the House and Senate bill would require Duke Energy to close four “high-risk” sites across North Carolina within five years. But deadlines for cleaning up the remaining 10 sites would extend until 2029 or beyond, and sites deemed “low-risk” could be capped in place without installing a liner to protect groundwater.

In June, the nonprofit organization Waterkeeper Alliance reported that well-water tests at five homes near Duke Energy’s Buck Steam Station in Rowan County revealed hexavalent chromium, a potent carcinogen. Still, an amendment to add the Buck plant to the list of “high-risk” sites narrowly failed in the House.

At press time, the committee had not yet negotiated a final bill.