A second coal ash dump is sending arsenic-laced toxins into waterways, Raw Story reports. Duke Energy is already facing federal criminal charges over its first leak in the state. These spills are spreading far and wide with residues from the first spill spreading as far as 70 miles.
The new spill heightens focus on Governor Pat McCrory and his ties with Duke Energy. Southern Studies reports on how Duke Energy bankrolled his campaigns for governor.
Adding to environmentalists' concern is the fact that Gov. Pat McCrory worked for Duke Energy for 28 years and received over $300,000 in direct campaign contributions from the company's political action committee and its employees, former employees, and their spouses. In all, McCrory's 2008 and 2012 gubernatorial campaigns benefited from a total of $1.1 million in political spending by Duke Energy, according to an analysis by Democracy North Carolina. It remains unknown whether the Renew North Carolina Foundation, a pro-McCrory shadow campaign committee, received money from Duke Energy because the 501(c)(4) tax-exempt group does not disclose its donors.
In addition, McCrory still holds a substantial amount of stock in Duke Energy, though he has refused to say exactly how much. That has led some watchdog groups to call on McCrory to recuse himself from appointing members of the N.C. Utilities Commission -- a call he has rejected.
Medicine discusses arsenic poisoning here:
People can be exposed to arsenic by inhaling it, by consuming contaminated foods, water, or beverages, or by skin contact. We are normally exposed to trace amounts of arsenic in the air and water, and in foods. People may be exposed to higher levels if they live near industrial areas that currently or formerly contained arsenic compounds. Areas with known high concentrations of arsenic in the drinking water are also associated with greater exposure.
Symptoms include vomiting, abdominal pain, diarrhea, dark urine, dehydration, cardiac problems (which would be a serious problem for older people), destruction of red blood cells, vertigo, delirium, shock, and death. Long-term risks include increased risk of certain cancers according to the EPA.
This spill, and others like it, continue to undermine the claim by certain people that coal can be made clean. The Southern Alliance for Clean Energy notes that in spite of all the investment in "clean" coal, it is still not commercially viable:
Like the wildly imaginable (but ultimately fanciful) Chimera of Greek mythology, clean coal has remained an unrealized fantasy of the coal industry. One of the key issues involved in the carbon debate is whether or not “clean coal” technology is currently a viable and realistic option for reducing carbon dioxide emissions from existing coal-fired power plants. Even the company currently constructing the nation’s only carbon capture plant, Southern Company, claims that the technology is not yet commercially viable. To date, efforts to develop so-called clean coal technologies have failed to deliver and we continue to suffer the negative impacts of dirty coal-fired power plants.
One of the more captivating failures of a proponent of clean coal technology is the story of Bob Walker. Bob Walker, the former CEO of Bixby Energy Systems of Ramsey, promised investors that his company had developed technology that could convert coal into a cleaner burning flammable gas through a process generally known as coal gasification. That promise, and the failure to deliver on that promise, was the impetus for fraud, conspiracy, tax evasion and witness tampering charges brought against Walker in U.S. District Court. Walker is charged with defrauding 1,800 investors of $57 million over a decade long scam.