The Latest News On The
Coal Ash Spill in Eden,
NC
Officials sample contamintion in the Dan River
Coal ash is the waste that remains when coal is burned. It is usually collected in a dump, known as a pond. North
Carolina has more than 30 such sites in 14 different locations across the state. A pipe running under one of the
ponds run by Duke Energy in Eden NC ruptured in February of 2014. The coal ash spilled, largely affecting the
Dan River which flows into Virginia. The spill is the third largest of its kind in U.S. history.
RALEIGH, N.C. (AP) — A year after
the spill, regulators are still working
to determine how much to fine the
nation's largest electricity company.
It took nearly a week to plug the leak
from Duke Energy's Eden coal ash
dump that began Feb. 2, 2014 and
coated 70 miles of the Dan River in
gray sludge. North Carolina
environmental officials quickly
issued Duke a pair of formal notices
outlining violations of wastewater
and storm-water regulations. The
company was issued additional
notices for violations after regulators found issues at other Duke coal-ash dumps across the state. A key issue in
assessing what Duke will eventually pay depends on what, if any, long-range damage was done by the estimated
39,000 tons of ash spilled into the river. Coal ash, the waste from coal burned to generate electricity, contains
toxic arsenic, selenium, chromium and mercury. So far, officials at both Duke and North Carolina's
environmental enforcement agency say recent surveys of aquatic animals show the river is recovering. Tests on
water samples collected downstream of the spill immediately after the spill showed high readings for arsenic, lead
and aluminum. Those levels dropped within days, however, after the ash settled to the river bottom in drifts as
thick as five feet. Under the supervision of the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency, contractors hired by Duke
vacuumed out the largest pockets, recovering less than 8 percent of the ash before stopping in July. In October,
staff from the N.C. Division of Water Resources sampled aquatic insects and other tiny animals in the river,
determining that the size and diversity of the populations both upstream and downstream from the spill were
similar. But scientists and environmentalists warn it could take years to know the true long-range impact on the
river. The Dan is home to two federally listed endangered species, the Roanoke logperch fish and the James
spinymussel.
Dennis Lemly, a U.S. Forest Service fish biologist and professor at Wake Forest University, says the “real concern,
is whether they will absorb the toxic metals from the coal ash, which over time would become concentrated in the
fishes and birds that eat them.” Several studies are either planned or already under way to measure whether
contaminates contained in the coal ash are making their way up the river's food chain.