The Charlotte Observer

10 Duke ash basins on hazard list

No imminent instability was found, but location of coal waste storage raises
risk to life if dams were to collapse.

By Bruce Henderson

Tuesday, Jun. 30, 2009

Ten Duke Energy coal ash basins, including four near Charlotte, are among 44
"high hazard potential" impoundments nationwide, federal enforcers said Monday.

The basins, where electric utilities dump power-plant residues, have come under
intense scrutiny since a Tennessee Valley Authority basin in Kingston, Tenn.,
failed in December. The collapse released 5.4 million cubic yards of
contaminated sludge.

The Environmental Protection Agency, responding to public pressure, identified
427 ash basins at power plants. Those rated "high hazard" aren't in danger of
failing but, because of their locations, could kill someone if they did
collapse.

Among them are Duke's Allen and Riverbend coal-fired power plants on the Catawba
River in Gaston County and Marshall plant on Lake Norman in Catawba County. Two
more are at Progress Energy's Asheville plant.

Duke's eight Carolinas coal-fired plants produce 2.2 million tons of ash a year,
piping two-thirds of it into landfills and ponds. The ash is laden with metals
that in high concentrations can cause cancer and other health problems.

EPA said it has conducted on-site inspections of some of the high-hazard basins
and will review others that have been inspected by state officials in the past
12 months. The agency said it will make inspection results public when they're
completed.

Duke spokesman Jason Walls said the utility has completed, or will soon
complete, all recommendations that N.C. dam-safety officials made after their
most recent inspections. EPA has not asked Duke to take any action, he said.
The N.C. Utilities Commission, which regulates Duke, requires safety inspections
of coal-ash basins every five years. Duke has said it voluntarily does annual
inspections.

The Observer's review of state records in December found no reports of imminent
instability at Duke's dams. But the records showed "potentially serious" seepage
in 2007 at its Dan River plant near the Virginia line. "Major distress" was
reported after a 2005 storm that overtopped a dike at the Cliffside plant 60
miles west of Charlotte.

EPA has not provided the Observer with information it sought this spring on
Duke's responses to the agency.

"This is critical information for the communities that live near these
facilities who now know there is a substantial threat nearby," attorney Lisa
Evans, of the Oakland, Calif., environmental law firm Earthjustice, said in a
statement.

"The next step is for EPA to regulate coal ash as hazardous waste and guarantee
protections for these local communities."