State wants Duke Energy documents on coal ash pondsMar 5 - McClatchy-Tribune Regional News - Bruce Henderson The Charlotte Observer
North Carolina's environment agency wants Duke Energy to provide information about its coal-ash ponds that state legislation has allowed the utility to keep private. The N.C. Department of Environment and Natural Resources said Wednesday that it will inspect all of Duke's ash ponds next week. The agency wants Duke to provide engineering and emergency-action plans for the ponds, documents that utilities have not been required to produce. Legislation passed in 2009, following a massive ash spill in Tennessee, placed ash-pond dam inspections under the state dam safety office. The legislation deemed all ash ponds "approved" by the state and said Duke and Progress Energy, separate companies at that time, did not have to provide documents connected with their continued operation and maintenance. The utilities have cited that provision in refusing to turn over some documents the state requested, state dam safety engineer Steve McEvoy has told The Observer. Duke has said it cooperates with regulators who ask for documentation. DENR said it will inspect all permitted and unpermitted discharge points at all 14 of Duke's active and retired coal-fired power plants. They will check the structural integrity of the pipes and collect water samples from each. The state also wants Duke to provide videos of the inside of each pipe. A ruptured 48-inch stormwater pipe under an ash plan at Duke's retired power plant in Eden dumped thousands of tons of ash into the Dan River on. A Duke video viewed by the state later revealed leaks and potential failure of a second, 36-inch stormwater pipe under that pond. Duke revealed last week that eight of its 33 ash ponds have corrugated metal stormwater pipes, the material that broke at the Dan River plant. No others run an ash pond, Duke says. http://www.energycentral.com/news/en/31739984/
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