Groups sue EPA to get info on Duke coal ash
Dec 3 - McClatchy-Tribune Regional News - Bruce Henderson The Charlotte
Observer, N.C.
Three environmental groups have filed a federal lawsuit intended to
publicly release information about coal ash basins owned by Duke Energy
and several other utilities.
In June, the Environmental Protection Agency identified 44 of the
basins, which hold ash mixed with water, as "high hazard." Ten of those
are Duke's. The designation doesn't mean the basins are likely to fail,
but might kill people if they collapsed.
EPA had sought information on the basins after a massive spill of
coal-ash sludge by the Tennessee Valley Authority a year ago. Coal ash
holds potentially toxic material.
Duke said it submitted the information to EPA, but asked the agency to
keep private the size and other physical aspects of its ash basins. That
information could help competitors glean insights into Duke's
operations, the company says.
Duke spokesman Andy Thompson said regulators have enough information to
judge the basins' safety.
"We believe the regulatory bodies are best suited to ensure that
utilities are operating their facilities in compliance with state and
federal regulations," he said.
The Sierra Club, the public interest law firm Earthjustice and the
Environmental Integrity Project sued the EPA in federal court in San
Francisco on Tuesday to force the EPA to release the information. The
groups say the public deserves to know more about structures that could
fail.
"Most utilities have already provided EPA with exactly the same data
that Duke, First Energy and the Southern Company subsidiaries are trying
to keep the public from seeing," said Eric Schaeffer of the
Environmental Integrity Project.
Among the basins on the EPA's high-hazard list are those at Duke's Allen
and Riverbend power plants on the Catawba River in Gaston County, and
the Marshall plant on Lake Norman in Catawba County.
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