Jan 19 - McClatchy-Tribune Regional News - John Hinton Winston-Salem Journal, N.C.

Recent spills of coal ash in Alabama and Tennessee piqued the attention of Duke Energy Corp., which reviewed inspection reports about its coal-fire plants in five states including North Carolina.

The company said last week that its 90-acre retention pond that contains coal ash at the Belews Creek Steam Station in Stokes County is safe.

Duke Energy has run its coal-ash pond safely at the Belews Creek station since the station opened in 1974, said Marilyn Lineberger, a company spokeswoman.

The station is the company's largest coal-burning power plant in the Carolinas and produces 2,240 megawatts of electricity for Duke Energy customers.

The Belews Creek station is along Belews Lake, about 18 miles northeast of Winston-Salem. Its spillway, dam and dike handle the coal ash that is generated by the coal-fire plant. The coal ash, also known as fly ash, is piped to the retention pond that is northwest of the plant across Pine Hall Road.

"In light of the recent TVA incident, we are reviewing our most recent inspection reports, assuring that all recommendations have been or are being addressed, and reviewing our internal procedures," Lineberger said.

An engineer inspects Duke Energy's ash basin every year, and an independent engineer inspects the basin every five years, Lineberger said. The N.C. Utilities Commission regulates the management of the pond that contains 7 million tons of coal ash.

About 400,000 tons of ash a year produced at the plant is sold for use in the concrete-products market, she said.

"We are committed to operating the coal-ash pond safely," Lineberger said.

Roy Ericson, a senior operation analyst for the utilities commission, said that Duke Energy has a good safety record running the retention pond with its coal ash at the Belews Creek station. State dam-safety engineers review its inspection reports.

Since the Dec. 22 coal ash spill at the Tennessee Valley Authority's Kingston Fossil Plant, which poured a billion gallons of toxic material over 300 acres near Knoxville, legislators and regulators have said that the federal government should revisit an issue it has deliberated on for 30 years.

Although President-elect Obama has identified climate change as one of his top policy priorities, dealing with coal ash may come first.

In northwestern Alabama, the Tennessee Valley Authority said that a 147-acre retention pond leaked water Jan. 9 laced with calcium sulfate, a component of gypsum, which is released when coal burns. About 10,000 gallons of coal ash spilled into Widows Creek, which flows into the Tennessee River.

The TVA runs the Widows Creek power plant, where the retention pond is. By the time the discharge was stopped, the spill had run into an adjacent pond and overflowed into the creek.

Such spills could occur at the retention pond at the Belews Creek station, said Lou Zeller of Glendale Springs, the science director for the Blue Ridge Environmental Defense League.

"It can happen here," Zeller said. "Even without a breach, there is a danger of contamination of the groundwater."

The Belews Creek pond is not lined, but it complies with federal and state groundwater standards, Lineberger said.

Lisa Jackson, Obama's nominee to head the EPA, pledged last week to look at the possibility of regulating coal fly ash amid calls for stricter regulation of fly-ash ponds.

"I think the EPA needs to first and foremost assess the current state of what's out there," Jackson said.

Burning coal produces more than 129 million tons annually of combustion waste -- a concentrated ash that includes toxic elements such as arsenic, lead, cadmium, selenium and mercury -- but federal authorities have yet to establish uniform standards for handling it.

"The threats are out there, and we know it now. And we also know how we need to address them," said Chairman Nick Rahall, D-W.Va., of the House Natural Resources Committee. He introduced legislation this week calling for tighter controls on coal-ash ponds, which are piles of combustion waste suspended in water. "As we often see in the coalfields across the country, it takes a disaster before we see decisive action."

The amount of coal-combustion waste produced each year has increased by nearly a third since 1990, and there are now as many as 1,300 coal-ash ponds across the nation.

According to a report issued this week by the environmental law firm Earthjustice, each year about 25 million tons of coal ash are dumped into active and abandoned mines, where it often goes directly into groundwater. The EPA determined last year that coal ash has contaminated water in 24 states.

John Hinton can be reached at 727-7299 or at jhinton@wsjournal.com.

The Associated Press contributed to this story.

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