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Electricity companies continued to restore power in the Carolinas yesterday as the remains of Hurricane Florence spilled more rain into the area.
The weaker winds of Florence probably spared a large part of the electricity grid, but the heavy rains are at the origin of the collapse of a Duke coal ash removal site. Energy Corp. at L.V. Sutton Power Station, near Wilmington, New Brunswick. Part of the dump being washed away, coal ash escaped into Sutton Lake along the Cape Fear River.
Duke issued a statement in which he says he does not believe that the incident poses a risk to public health or the environment.
Yet nearby residents did not like the sound. Water quality has become a growing problem of massive flooding and wind damage.
"I do not think I want to drink it," said a man named Hank, pausing after inspecting the damage on his caravan. Other people living near Duke's factory said they were not drinking tap at all.
Publicity
The deep waters covered the north road to the Sutton factory, while the sheriff's deputies evacuated nearby houses, some of which had begun to be flooded. Industrial sites and trailer parks dot the area, and the smell of burned popcorn has gone through the rain.
State and business representatives said it may take some time to determine the extent to which the discharge of coal ash poses a threat to the people of the region. Coal ash is the toxic residue left by power plants that burn coal. It is an infusion of lead, mercury, arsenic, cadmium and other heavy metals.
Flood waters and other dangers are keeping North Carolina inspectors out of the region, said North Carolina Governor Roy Cooper (D) at a press briefing yesterday. "I think it's just flooded, and you can not get there," he said.
Duke's inspectors found a collapsed slope and erosion in a landfill site that housed the former coal-fired Sutton plant, which is now a natural gas plant. About 2,000 cubic yards – enough to fill two-thirds of an Olympic-size pool – were released.
The utility indicated that it was unclear what portion of the stormwater could reach Sutton Lake, which was called a cooling pond designed to support the plant's operations. The 1,100-acre lake is known to the public as a popular fishing destination. It is located next to the banks of the Cape Fear River, which reached flood levels yesterday.
Duke, in his statement, sought to reassure the residents. She relied on an EPA 2014 coal ash disposal rule from the Obama era that determined that coal ash should not be treated as hazardous waste. The rule emerged after years of pressure from the utility industry in favor of weaker regulation. Since then, the Trump administration has sought to transfer more regulations on coal ash to the states.
The ash ponds from Duke to Sutton have a long history. The state imposed on the company a record fine of $ 25 million in 2015 for years of groundwater contamination.
Officials from the North Carolina Department of Environmental Quality said they were monitoring coal ash impoundments in the state. "Once the damage is assessed, DEQ will determine the best course of action and will ask the utility to report on the implementation of the solution to protect public health and the environment," said Megan Thorpe. , spokesman for the DEQ.
Duke's balance sheet
The collapse is a perfect fodder for environmental groups, who have been arguing for years that Duke does not store ash in its coal plants. Their critics were brighter in 2014 after a pipe burst in an Eden plant, spilling 30,000 tonnes of sludge into the Dan River near the border between North Carolina and Virginia.
Duke agreed to pay millions of dollars in fines for the spill, prompting state legislators to call for stricter regulations on coal ash.
Paige Sheehan, spokeswoman for Duke, said in an email to E & E News that the basins at the Sutton plant are on track to be excavated, with 4.3 million tonnes out of nearly 7 million already cleaned.
The utility is working aggressively to meet the target date of August 2019, she said.
There are 31 coal ash basins in Duke coal plants in North Carolina. Half of its 14 coal plants are now closed.
David Fountain, president of Duke Energy North Carolina, told reporters last week that water levels in these basins had already dropped as the grid closed. Duke's primary focus is on rivers and creeks that can flood and spill into the cooling water intake ponds of these coal-fired power plants, Fountain said. These ponds do not contain coal ash or other toxic chemicals, he added.
Duke shut down its Brunswick nuclear plant on Thursday because it was on the way to Florence. Federal safety regulations require power companies to temporarily shut down nuclear power plants that may be subject to Category 1 force winds.
Last week, the Union of Concerned Scientists issued warning statements regarding the floods at the Brunswick Nuclear Generating Station and a property owned by Dominion Virginia Power.
The violent winds of Florence were formerly at the strength of category 4, but they weakened to such a point that meteorologists reduced it to a tropical storm on Friday. By then, the storm had increased and slowed down, leading to increased storm surge and flooding fears.
Electricity companies such as Duke said they were preparing for the worst and had 9,400 outside workers to assist their own teams.
The Edison Electric Institute has a "war room" that monitors and helps to lead the restoration efforts of food.
Words of warning
As of 4:30 pm Yesterday, there were 613,532 blackouts in North Carolina and 32,471 in South Carolina, against more than one million on Saturday.
EEI stated that when weather conditions permit, teams build transit sites, assess damage and restore energy where they can and provided it is safe. More than 40,000 workers across the country and across Canada were mobilized and pre-positioned before the storm.
The three major power companies of North and South Carolina – Duke, South Carolina Electric & Gas Co. and Santee Cooper – have all announced power outages by the thousands on Friday afternoon. Duke has reported more than 1.4 million customers without electricity over the weekend.
The utility returned electricity to more than a million of these customers last night. The remaining customers are probably located in heavily flooded areas that are too insecure for workers to go or have equipment under water.
"People need to understand that some areas may not be fed for a while," said Cooper, the governor of North Carolina. "I know [utility crews] work as hard as possible. "
SCE & G reported a peak of 7,500 failures. Santee Cooper reported more than 50,000 customers without electricity on Saturday and reduced this number to less than 1,000 yesterday.
It may take days to fully assess the damage to the electricity grid as rains continue to fall and flood waters rise.
Conditions prevent crews from going to work. In addition, it is impossible to repair faults related to underground power lines if the area around them is also submerged in the water.
Journalist Rod Kuckro contributed to this story.
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