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.
Latest News
Coal Ash Cleanup: Three States See Major Developments
North Carolina holds meetings on coal ash cleanup in the state. Tennessee workers who are sick after cleaning up TVA’s 2008 coal ash disaster seek resolution. Virginia moves closer to requiring Dominion Energy to relocate its toxic coal ash.
Push for N.C. Coal Ash Cleanup Enters Final Stages
We joined North Carolinians living near Duke Energy’s coal ash dumps in telling the state that capping the toxic pits instead of moving the material away from water sources is a non-starter.
Five years after Dan River: Coal ash in N.C.
The Dan River coal ash spill sparked a flurry of coal ash cleanup legislation, public hearings, community meetings and more across North Carolina. But where does coal ash stand in the state now?
N.C. Lowers Risk Rating of Coal Ash Pits
Duke Energy may now be able to cap six toxic coal ash dumps in North Carolina in place instead of transporting the material to lined landfills after state regulators classified the dumps as “low risk.”
Hurricane Highlights Coal Ash Risks
September’s Hurricane Florence breached two of Duke Energy’s coal ash and wastewater impoundments.
Al Gore, Rev. Barber tour coal-impacted communities in N.C.
The former vice president joined with the Poor People’s Campaign and others on a two-day tour to highlight the link between environmental injustice and poverty.
