As Hurricane Florence makes its way into the Carolinas, dozens of toxic coal ash piles are potentially in its path. Back in 2016, after the Category 1 Hurricane Matthew flooded many areas of North Carolina, Appalachian Voices reported on the results to the coal ash areas.
While the flood waters are still receding, we are learning about the impacts left in their wake. Flooding at Duke Energy’s H.F. Lee Plant, near Goldsboro, caused a breach in one of the plant’s cooling ponds. In a separate incident, one of the inactive coal ash basins was overrun, releasing an unknown amount of coal waste into the Neuse River.
It is critical to point out that the ash flowed out of an inactive pond. It underscores the notion that simply capping these sites and leaving them in place is not enough to keep detrimental impacts from occurring in the future. The only way to ensure these sites cause no future harm is to remove the ash from compromised locations, including flood prone areas and place it in either appropriate landfills, or even more promising, recycled into products for the concrete industry which wants and needs Duke Energy’s ash for its production facilities.
Inside Climate News points out that there are at least 29 ash dumps across the states in Florence’s path, all of which could be at risk for landslides if they have open faces.
The biggest coal ash threats from this storm are likely to be in North Carolina and Virginia, where utilities have been slower to clean up the ash piles, said Frank S. Holleman III, senior attorney with the Southern Environmental Law Center, which has pressed utilities to clean up its coal-burning wastes. South Carolina utilities are farther along on their ash cleanup efforts, he said.
"If Duke Energy and Dominion would simply remove its coal ash from all its unlined waterfront pits and move its ash to safe, dry, lined storage away from waterways or recycle it for concrete, then there would be nothing to fear from coal ash when a hurricane makes landfall in North Carolina or Virginia," Holleman said. Instead, he said, millions of tons of coal ash remain in the impoundments and at risk of catastrophe during hurricanes and floods.
Duke Energy said through a spokesperson that they have extra staff and equipment at the ready to deal with issues that may arise due to heavy rains. Duke Energy doesn’t have a history of doing a particularly good job of protecting the areas around their facilities from their pollution. Its coal ash waste ponds have been tied to polluted fresh water wells in local areas, so this news isn’t heartening at all. Couple that with a history of covering up big business environmental malfeasance in places like North Carolina, and you have the potential for some truly disastrous outcomes.