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
Hellos and Goodbyes — Aug/Sept 2017
We welcome three new members to our Tennessee Energy Savings team, and bid farewell to our former Tennessee VISTA service member and the graphic designer for The Appalachian Voice.
Environmental Votetracker — Aug/Sept 2017 issue
How Appalachian House and Senate members voted regarding several environmental issues in June and July
Preparing for Monday’s Solar Eclipse
On August 21, a total solar eclipse will occur over the United States for the first time in 38 years, and will be visible in parts of the southern Appalachian mountains. Here are some tips on how to see this fascinating celestial event.
Monogamous and territorial – my common traits with woodpeckers
Living in Virginia, it’s easy to take the Blue Ridge Mountains for granted. But if you pay attention, there’s a mystery to them that many don’t appreciate — including the companies who want to build natural gas pipelines through them.
In Tennessee, Powell Valley Electric Co-op members speak out
Electric co-ops are governed by boards who are democratically elected, and therefore supposedly responsive to their customers, who are also co-owners of these utilities. The Powell Valley Electric Cooperative in east Tennessee has stirred grave concern with its herbicide spraying policy, and members are speaking out.
The fight against the Atlantic Coast Pipeline is not over
As expected, the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission recently gave a glowing review to the Atlantic Coast Pipeline, overlooking the threats to wetlands, forest, drinking waters and indigenous populations along the pipeline’s proposed route.
