North Carolina Riverkeepers Blast NC Senate Plan to let Duke off the Hook for Coal Ash Cleanups
By: Waterkeeper Alliance
This afternoon, an anti-environmental faction within the North Carolina state senate suddenly introduced a bill that would effectively repeal key provisions of the state Coal Ash Management Act (CAMA) and pave the way for Duke Energy to leave millions of tons of coal ash in leaking dumps across the state.
In May, Governor McCrory’s Department of Environmental Quality (DEQ) determined that all of Duke Energy’s unlined, leaking coal ash dumps across the state pose unacceptable risks to human health and the environment. Under CAMA, the finding triggered a requirement for Duke Energy to excavate coal ash at every one of its unlined ponds in the state. Subsequently, McCrory administration officials have aggressively lobbied for an amendment to CAMA that would allow DEQ to reverse its decision and allow Duke to leave its coal ash in the leaking dumps forever.
Earlier this month, the General Assembly passed an amendment to CAMA, but Governor McCrory vetoed the bill because it didn’t give him exclusive control of an oversight commission that would ultimately decide the extent of cleanups for each site. A modified version of the legislation emerged in the Senate Rules Committee this afternoon. The new bill caves to the governor’s wishes by eliminating the oversight commission altogether and chisels away at other key provisions of CAMA.
“McCrory has touted CAMA as the main evidence that his administration is doing something about coal ash,” said Yadkin Riverkeeper, Will Scott. “Now he convinced the senate to try to pull the teeth out of the law and let Duke Energy off the hook.”
The new senate bill contains a provision that would allow Duke Energy to leave coal ash in leaking pits if the company funds water line extensions to residents living around coal ash dumps whose drinking water supplies are contaminated, and by making repairs to the crumbling earthen berms that hold back millions of tons of coal ash from rivers across the state.
“The senate bill would allow Duke Energy to buy its way out of trouble,” said Sam Perkins, the Catawba Riverkeeper. “Yes, Duke should have to pay for clean water supplies to the people living around its coal ash dumps, but that shouldn’t give them the right to continue polluting our rivers forever by leaving the ash in place,” Perkins said.
Others criticized the bill for giving McCrory the unchecked authority to allow Duke Energy to leave coal ash in leaking pits where it will continue to leak toxic heavy metals into lakes and rivers that supply drinking water to millions of North Carolinians.
Waterkeeper Alliance attorney Pete Harrison said that removing the oversight commission would be like letting the fox guard the henhouse. “Nobody has forgotten that Pat McCrory is a former long-time Duke employee whose administration became the subject of a federal criminal investigation into its cozy relationship with the company. There’s a reason why the governor wants the final say on coal ash cleanups that affect Duke’s bottom line.”
The bill would also buy more time for McCrory and Duke to make cleanup decisions, and could even allow decisions to be postponed indefinitely while coal ash continues to leak into groundwater and rivers.
“To this day, the McCrory administration has not required Duke Energy to clean up an ounce of coal ash anywhere in the state,” said Kemp Burdette, the Cape Fear Riverkeeper. “This bill would ensure that the administration could continue to do nothing for years to come.”
“McCrory is actively attempting to gut the law that he has long touted as evidence that his administration is taking a tough stance on Duke Energy’s coal ash mess,” said Hartwell Carson, the French Broad Riverkeeper.
“This classic bait and switch comes at the expense of rivers and water supplies across North Carolina,” added Matt Starr, the Upper Neuse Riverkeeper.