Melissa Williams, melissa.williams@sierraclub.org
RALEIGH, N.C. — Duke Energy has activated a high-level emergency at the retired L.V. Sutton coal-fired power plant, as flood waters from the nearby Cape Fear River have overtaken an earthen dike and Sutton Lake in Wilmington. Meanwhile, multiple releases of pollution from the H.F. Lee coal plant have surged into the Neuse River in Goldsboro.
Yet, in the wake of Hurricane Florence, Duke Energy has repeatedly downplayed the dangers of its ash ponds, hiding behind the fact that coal ash—which contains toxins including arsenic, lead, mercury, selenium, aluminum and chloride—is not designated as a hazardous waste. The toxic slurry that comprises coal ash waste can raise the risk for cancer, heart disease, and stroke, and can inflict permanent brain damage on children.
As late as Sunday, Duke officials were still claiming that the release at Sutton—enough to fill about two-thirds of an Olympic-sized pool—posed “no imminent threat.”
The “high emergency alert” was activated there today, on a site where a 1,100-acre reservoir former coal plant cooling pond sits adjacent to three large coal ash dumps.
In response, Dave Rogers, representative for the Beyond Coal campaign in North Carolina, released the following statement:
“It’s time for Duke to stop downplaying how dangerous coal ash is and the threat it continually poses to people and the environment. There’s no completely safe way to store toxic coal waste, or to mine and burn coal, that doesn’t threaten communities, our waterways and our climate.
“Knowing the problems that coal ash causes, Duke needs to stop making the problem worse, and retire every coal plant in North Carolina.
After this storm, there will be others, perhaps even stronger and more powerful. We hope Hurricane Florence is the wake-up call for Duke to remove its ash from all of its unlined, leaking coal ash pits next to waterways, and take the necessary steps to ensure that all of its landfills are secure and won’t contaminate communities, not only when there are massive storms, but from everyday leaching into our groundwater.”
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