MARCH 11, 2015
CHARLOTTE, N.C.
Environmental officials in the state of North Carolina said
Tuesday that they are fining Duke Energy Corp. US$25 million over pollution
that has been seeping into groundwater for years from a pair of coal ash pits
at a retired power plant.
The state Department of Environment and Natural Resources
called it the state's largest penalty for environmental damages. It issued the
fine over ongoing contamination at the L.V. Sutton Electric Plant outside
Wilmington. The site includes a pair of unlined dumps estimated to hold 2.6 million
tons of ash.
The state touted the fine as an important development to
hold Duke accountable for years of pollution.
But environmental groups said the fine doesn't force Duke to
clean up the pollution - something they've been trying to get the $50 billion
Charlotte-based company to do for years. Without that, groundwater near
Flemington, a largely working-class community, will remain contaminated, said
Kemp Burdette, the Cape Fear Riverkeeper.
Charlotte-based Duke Energy has 30 days to appeal the fine.
The company did not immediately respond to email or phone
messages Tuesday.
The state said monitoring wells near Duke's dumps at Sutton
showed readings exceeding state groundwater standards or boron, thallium,
selenium, iron, manganese and other chemicals. Thallium was used for decades as
the active ingredient in rat poison until it was banned because it is highly
toxic.
With thallium, the state said it determined that Duke
allowed the toxic chemical to "leach into groundwater at the Sutton
facility for 1,668 days."
Duke's 32 coal ash dumps scattered at 14 sites across the
state have been under intense scrutiny since last year, when a pipe collapse at
the company's plant in Eden coated 70 miles of the Dan River in gray sludge.
The ash, which is the waste left behind when coal is burned to generate
electricity, contains toxic heavy metals.
North Carolina lawmakers approved new legislation last year
requiring Duke to dig up or cap all of its coal ash dumps by 2029.
And federal prosecutors recently filed multiple criminal
charges against Duke over years of illegal pollution leaking from coal ash
dumps at five North Carolina power plants.
The three U.S. Attorney's Offices covering the state charged
Duke with nine misdemeanor counts involving violations of the Clean Water Act.
The prosecutors say the nation's largest electricity company engaged in
unlawful dumping at coal-fired power plants in Eden, Moncure, Asheville,
Goldsboro and Mt. Holly.
Duke has said that it has already negotiated a plea
agreement under which it will admit guilt and pay $102 million in fines,
restitution and community service. The company said the costs of the settlement
will be borne by its shareholders, not passed on to its electricity customers.
While Sutton was not one of the plants, state water quality
officials knew for years about the contamination at the unlined ash pits but
took no enforcement action until August 2013 — after the Southern Environmental
Law Center, on the behalf of citizens group, tried to sue Duke for violating
the Clean Water Act.
"The easiest thing for Duke Energy is to write a
check...But this proposed fine does not eliminate or clean up one ounce of coal
ash pollution," said Frank Holleman, senior attorney for the environmental
legal group.