Belmont neighbors speak with NC environmentalists about coal ash

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By Ken Lemon

RALEIGH, N.C. — The North Carolina Department of Environmental Quality held a public information session Tuesday evening regarding Duke Energy's Allen Steam Station.

The meeting was at Stuart Cramer High School in Belmont at 6 p.m.

[ [ALSO READ: Families near Allen Steam Station mark 1,000 days living off bottled water] ]

This was the first of several opportunities for the community to discuss what they value in a closure plan and coal ash impoundment for the Allen Steam Station.

Leaders discussed closure options for the site and coal ash experts will address specific questions relating to environmental and public health considerations around those options.

"We need to do the right thing now," resident Amy Brown said.

Brown said her well water can't be trusted because of fears of contamination from coal ash ponds at the Allen Steam Station.

She and many of her neighbors spent years drinking bottled water. They also fought to get a water line but only if they agreed not to sue Duke Energy.

The session was followed by an evaluation by DEQ and a proposed closure plan from Duke Energy, which will hold another comment period later in the year.

[ [ALSO READ: Neighbors worry construction near Duke Energy power plant could disturb buried coal ash] ]

Duke Energy has presented options for the state to consider at the Allen Steam plant and the Marshal plant:

  • Covering the coal ash ponds would cost Duke $185 million
  • Moving some ash and covering it all: $280 million
  • Moving it to a landfill on site: $558 million
  • Moving it to an offsite landfill: $1.2 billion

Duke Energy wants to cover it, but Brown wants it all hauled away.

"They are unlined, and they are sitting next to our rivers and lakes," Brown said.

The ponds are next to Lake Wylie.

"Coal ash is poisonous forever,” Catawba River Keeper Brandon Jones said. “These are elements (that) don't breakdown."

Jones said capping the ponds won't contain the problem.

"We have decades worth of surface testing on Lake Wylie that shows the lake is safe," Duke Energy spokesman Bill Norton said.

He said tests by Duke Energy, Duke University and the state showed neighbors water was safe.

It will still be safe with a synthetic liner over the ponds covered with layers of sediment, soil and vegetation, Norton said.

He said hauling away coal ash would be expensive for consumers and time-consuming.

"(It would be) six times the cost and two decades worth of truck trips if the critics have their way," Norton said.

Duke Energy said it will remove coal ash closest to residents.

The state has until April to decide how Duke Energy cleans up the ponds.

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