© thinkprogress.orgCoal ash spill sends toxic waste downstream for 70 miles.
The electric utility made the announcement in its earnings report on Wednesday, according to the Los Angeles Times. A federal grand jury has been looking into the way Duke Energy manages the disposal and storage of the waste created at its coal-fired power plants ever since the coal ash spill occurred in February 2014.
The spill, which unloaded up to 39,000 tons of coal ash and some 27 million gallons of coal ash slurry into the Dan River, was the third-largest coal ash spill in US history.
Comment: In a SOTT article from last year, estimates of 50,000 to 82,000 tons of coal ash and up to 27M gallons of water were released from the 27-acre storage pond. Danville, Virginia, takes its water from the Dan River only 6 miles downstream of the pond. With 14 coal-fired plants in N. Carolina, Duke dumps its toxic metals into landfills, storage ponds or old mines - all subject to bursting dams and other environmental hazards.
"The company expects a proposed agreement could be reached and filed in the next several days for consideration by the court," Duke Energy said in its earnings report. "If approved, the proposed agreement would resolve the ongoing grand jury investigation of the company's coal ash basin management."
Coal ash is waste left after burning coal that contains arsenic, mercury, lead, and over a dozen other heavy metals, many of which are toxic.
© www.myfoxcarolinas.comProtesting Duke's illegal chemical dumping.
"This settlement would not resolve DENR's civil litigation over violations at coal ash ponds, which is ongoing," the agency said in a statement to the Charlotte Observer. "We also continue to investigate violations of state groundwater standards and to maintain our enforcement partnership with the US Environmental Protection Agency for civil violations of the Clean Water Act."
As noted in the statement, the Environmental Protection Agency has also taken legal action against the company, and it's unknown if the settlement referred to by Duke would cover that.
The February 2014 spill itself affected about 70 miles of the river, though officials maintained that drinking water downstream was still safe. However, recent reports have shown that coal ash leaks continue to take place in the state.
Back in December, Duke told North Carolina regulators that more than 3 million gallons of toxic chemicals were leaking near local rivers and lakes every day. The leaks have been traced to 200 different seeps at 14 coal-fired plants. Two seeps in particular leak almost 1 million gallons of waste a day.New legislation, meanwhile, does little to stop these leaks from continuing. Under North Carolina law, the company can either choose to plug the leaks or seek to have them included in wastewater discharge permits granted by DENR, the Observer reported. The second option is what Duke and DENR plan to go ahead with.
The plan has drawn ire from environmentalists who argue that including leaks in permits does nothing to solve the core problem. The Southern Environmental Law Center, for example, is planning a lawsuit in order to fight the permit plan.
"Duke has been openly leaking for years. Now they're asking DENR to give them amnesty," said senior attorney Frank Holleman to the Observer. "Can you imagine us allowing any municipality or county in the state to permit a wastewater treatment plant that leaks in multiple ways?"
Comment: They shouldn't allow a leak in even one way! Arsenic, which at high concentrations can cause cancer, appeared in seeps at six power plants at levels up to 140 times the state safety standard. Elevated levels of selenium, an element that can kill or deform fish and birds, showed up in seeps at two plants. Duke University scientists have found that arsenic from the Riverbend power plant sank into the sediment of Mountain Island Lake, Charlotte's main water supply and the toxic metal can find its way back into the water.
Of COURSE Duke Energy will settle this claim out of court. Doing so allows them to claim the settlement as a tax-deductible business expense, whereas a fine or a penalty imposed by a court is NOT tax-deductible. So, at corporate tax rates of 55%, paying a settlement of $100 million will save them $55 million in taxes, costing the company only a net $45 million. This means the taxpayers of NC will have to make up the lost $55 million in the NC State budget. (And who says the IRS does not have a heart?)
Nice work if you can get it, ain't it? Of course this tax benefit is not available to members of the public, but only to corporations. So when you sing "This land is my land, this land is your land," remember, that's a load of bull-pancakes. This land belongs to the corporations. (Motto: "We are people too.")