Coal ash clean-up changes clear legislature
The latest on a coal ash bill in the General Assembly.
with the Associated Press
Thursday, June 30, 2016 10:50PM
RALEIGH (WTVD) -- North Carolina legislators have given final approval to a new process to allow Duke Energy to use less expensive alternatives to clean up coal ash pits at seven sites while ensuring drinking water is piped to residents near the ponds in about two years.
The House voted late Thursday for legislation developed after Gov. Pat McCrory vetoed another bill that also would have reinstated a state Coal Ash Management Commission that he never supported and sued over.
That commission is gone in the bill that surfaced this week and already cleared the Senate. The bill now goes to McCrory's desk.
The new legislation allows alternatives to closing pits at the seven sites without removing ash if Duke makes some repairs. Excavations will still continue at seven other sites.
Water tests, as part of an On Your Side Investigation, found water wells within a half-mile to eight-tenths of a mile from a Duke coal pond in western Cleveland County with elevated levels of hexavalent chromium.
A spokeswoman for Duke says elevated levels of the toxic chemical were not caused by coal ash, but environment experts say differently.
The cleanup proposal has been backed by the Department of Environmental Quality.