Cleaning Up Coal Ash
For well over a century, power plants across the country have burned coal to generate electricity. And for just as long, leftover coal ash has been dumped in open, unlined pits near the power plant, usually located on a river or lake. Every year, U.S. power plants produce 130 million tons of coal ash, which is the second largest waste stream in the country after municipal garbage.
Coal ash concentrates the toxic heavy metals found in coal, including arsenic, mercury, lead and selenium. Stored in unlined, wet impoundments, coal ash has been leaking these toxics into our groundwater and surface waters for years. Sometimes these impoundments collapse — with disastrous results.
Yet government regulations for coal ash management are either non-existent or sparse, and there is little enforcement of the regulations that do exist. In North Carolina, this lack of oversight — and the complicity between state regulators, elected officials and Duke Energy — came to a boiling point in February 2014 when one of Duke’s coal ash impoundments spilled 39 million tons of ash into the Dan River.
Citizens living near North Carolina’s 33 coal ash impoundments — all of which have leaked — have fought for transparency from Duke and the state, and for cleanup of the pollution that threatens their property value, health and family. Their actions forced this issue into the headlines of news networks and to the forefront of environmental justice conversations in the United States.
Appalachian Voices stood with these communities as we worked for years to compel Duke Energy and the N.C. Department of Environmental Quality to excavate coal ash from all the North Carolina sites and dispose of it either in lined, dry landfills, away from waterways, or by recycling it for concrete or other uses, provided it’s done in a manner that protects public health and the environment.
On Jan. 2, 2020, North Carolina announced a historic settlement with one of the state’s most powerful corporations and polluters, Duke Energy. The settlement requires Duke to move nearly 80 million tons of toxic coal ash at six of its power plants to properly lined landfills onsite or recycle it.
Learn information about specific coal ash impoundments in the South, including health threats and safety ratings:
Additional Resources
Fact sheets, videos, links to academic research, and more
Sign Up to Act
Help us protect the health of our communities and waterways.
Latest News
One million N.C. households at risk of losing electricity and water during pandemic
CONTACT: Rory McIlmoil, Sr. Energy Analyst, Appalachian Voices,…
Groups sue TVA over never-ending contracts
Appalachian Voices has joined three other organizations in a lawsuit that challenges the Tennessee Valley Authority’s long-term contracts with local power companies. These perpetual contracts undermine the local power companies’ bargaining power to negotiate for cleaner, cheaper electricity.
Covid’s impact on coal sharpens the pandemic’s economic hardships
Even before the pandemic, a growing number of coal companies were declaring bankruptcy — and now the decades-long decline of coal is in a nosedive. This will leave already-shortchanged coalfield communities even less money to deal with decades of damage to people’s health and the environment.
Groups challenge TVA’s plan to lock local power companies into perpetual contracts
Contacts: Scott Smallwood | SELC | ssmallwood@selcga.org |…
Utility affordability in the time of Coronavirus
Equitable access to affordable water and energy services — fundamental to human well-being and public health — has been a significant though largely unseen problem for decades. Then Covid struck.
NC pipeline permit for MVP Southgate denied!
North Carolina’s Department of Environmental Quality denied a water quality permit for the Mountain Valley Pipeline Southgate extension on the grounds that the MVP mainline is not yet completed.
