Drink in the freshness
Duke Energy, best known for making money,
pleading guilty, and paying out
multimillion-dollar fines for contaminating waterways throughout North Carolina, has released a report saying that the
contaminated ash wells around their power plants are not the
cause of nearby private wells' contamination.
Contaminated groundwater at power plants in Gaston and Rowan counties is not flowing toward private wells, Duke Energy said Monday.
Duke, in groundwater analyses that will be reviewed by the state environmental agency, said no imminent health or environmental hazards exist near its Allen and Buck power plants.
Neighbors of the plants have been hardest hit by the results of statewide tests of private wells near Duke’s plants.
Through Aug. 18, owners of 128 private wells near Allen had been advised not to drink their water. Buck’s neighbors have received 78 advisories.
The good news for Duke is that this is exactly what they said they would find when they sent their scientists to find it in the first place!
The groundwater assessments found vanadium, one of two constituents found in many of the private wells, widespread on both power plant sites. Duke did not report results for hexavalent chromium, which may cause cancer, citing lack of time to collect and analyze data.
Not enough time, guys. It's not like the cancer-causing agent
hexavalent chromium was something they needed to test for anyways.
The tests for contaminates are being conducted on all water wells within 1,000 feet of Duke's coal ash storage ponds, thanks to a 2014 state law passed after a breech at one of the storage ponds sent 39,000 tons of toxic ash into a major river basin — one of the worst coal ash spills in history. Coal ash is what's left over when coal is burned for electricity. It contains toxins such as arsenic, lead, mercury, cadmium, hexavalent chromium, and selenium, all of which can cause an array of illnesses in humans.
The most recent tests conducted by DENR found high levels of lead, vanadium, and hexavalent chromium in the contaminated wells. While Duke told AP it is providing bottled water to "about half a dozen" of the affected residents, Duke Energy spokeswoman Erin Culbert told VICE News that some of the toxic metals may be forming naturally in the groundwater.
Hexavalent chromium. More like Schromium. Amiright? If there is one thing we know about Duke Energy and their transparency is that they are always super-duper upfront and never
under-report any of their information.
Until more information can be gathered and a more impartial scientific review can be put into place, the people of North Carolina will just have to get used to the same terminology used by climate deniers—"correlation doesn't necessarily mean causation." That and they'll have to invest in bottled water.