Floodwaters Breach defenses from Florence to the power station, sending toxic coal ash into the river

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Duke Energy closed a power plant in Wilmington, North Carolina on Friday after a dam broke on the site, spewing coal ash into the Cape Fear River, the company said.

The Environmental Protection Agency associates substances found in coal ash, including heavy metals such as arsenic, to nervous system problems, to reproduction and to cancer. It was not known immediately how much coal ash was moving in the river.

The operation that was closed, L.V. The Sutton plant is a source of growing concern since last week, when rains associated with Hurricane Florence caused the erosion of a coal ash dump at the site, spilling ash on a pavement. .

Duke Energy said the spill last week released 2,000 cubic yards of ash.

According to a report prepared for Duke Energy this year, this last publication concerns the two uninsulated coal ash ponds on the site, which contain a total of 2.1 million cubic meters of coal ash. This amount of coal ash would fill 1.3 times the Houston Astrodome.

The coal ash is the dangerous powdery substance remaining after burning coal. Since 2008, the Kingston Fossil Plant in Harriman, Tennessee, has been subject to increased surveillance., 5.4 million cubic meters of coal ash were dumped into the environment, causing a cleanup that cost more than a billion dollars.

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