Community Networking for Coal Ash Cleanup in N.C.

Our North Carolina team continues to work directly with those most impacted by coal ash. In November, we helped organize the second statewide gathering of ACT (Alliance of Carolinians Together) Against Coal Ash, a powerful grassroots group of residents living near current or proposed coal ash dumps.

In Stokes Co., outside of Duke’s Belews Creek Power Plant, we’ve been helping Residents for Coal Ash Cleanup grow in strength and numbers. The group is currently working on a community-led health survey and a county resolution advocating for the safe, permanent cleanup of the ash in their backyards. We plan to work through the new year to ensure that Duke Energy continues supplying bottled water to residents with contaminated wells and ultimately pays for a permanent source of safe water for them.

We will also be watching the N.C. Department of Environmental Quality to make sure that no coal ash site is deemed “low-priority” and given an inadequate cleanup plan. And we’ve joined the Southern Environmental Law Center and other state organizations in challenging the deal between Duke Energy and DEQ that lets the utility giant pay just $7 million to settle water pollution problems at all 14 of its coal-fired power plants.