Dan River coal ash spill impact

On a day when North Carolina officials ordered Duke Energy to immediately stop discharges from a second stormwater pipe, the company’s CEO said the utility takes responsibility for the spill that sent thousands of tons of coal ash into the Dan River.

Chief Executive Officer Lynn Good said during an earnings call with financial analysts that the company is “very focused” on preventing another spill from happening again.

RALEIGH, N.C. (AP) — As federal prosecutors launch a criminal investigation into Duke Energy's massive coal ash spill on the Dan River, two North Carolina lawmakers say they will push legislation to force the nation's largest electricity provider to clean out its leaky waste dumps across the state.

State Senate Rules Chairman Tom Apodaca and House Environment Committee Vice-Chairman Chuck McGrady say they will co-sponsor a bill seeking the removal of coal ash dumps like the one that ruptured Feb. 2, spewing toxic sludge into the Dan River and turning the water cloudy and gray for miles.

The N.C. Department of Environment and Natural Resources and Duke Energy have been subpoenaed to testify before a federal grand jury about the Feb. 2 coal ash spill in the Dan River, according to company and state officials.

The U.S. Attorney’s Office for the Eastern District of North Carolina has opened an “official criminal investigation of a suspected felony” in the matter, according to documents released by DENR.

Crews prepared Monday to start pumping a pocket of coal ash out of the Dan River, a week after Duke Energy’s spill there.

Workers over the weekend capped the stormwater pipe that broke Feb. 2, dumping tons of ash into the river. Duke said it’s still not clear why the pipe broke.

Updated 12:49 a.m.

EDEN — Duke Energy crews have plugged the leak that has allowed coal ash to spill into the Dan River for five days, a company official said Friday.

Water treated by Danville Utilities still meets safety standards despite Sunday’s coal ash spill at Duke Energy’s Dan River Steam Station in Eden — and the ongoing leak at the site.

Barry Dunkley, director of water and wastewater treatment for Danville Utilities, said turbidity — the amount of solids present in water samples — has decreased dramatically since Sunday, when levels in incoming water reached 400 NTU (nephelometric turbidity units), to less than 100 NTU Wednesday.

About a dozen types of fish — and the creatures they depend on for food — live in the Dan River, where nearly 85,000 tons of coal ash spilled into the water from a broken pipe Sunday upriver in Eden.

Toxic substances from the coal ash concern Matt Wasson, program director of Appalachian Voices, a nonprofit environmental organization.

Updated 9:37 p.m.

EDEN — A break in a stormwater pipe Sunday afternoon beneath an ash basin at the retired Dan River Steam Station caused the release of ash basin water and ash into the Dan River, according to a news release from Duke Energy.

When federal investigators review years of reports they have subpoenaed from the N.C. Utilities Commission, they’ll likely be struck by the many times Duke Energy and state officials missed opportunities to prevent the recent Dan River coal ash spill.

Interviews with several people involved in the commission’s review process suggest that North Carolina officials relied for nearly 35 years on a flawed system to study, track and correct problems with coal ash ponds at the power plant in Eden and 13 other sites across the state.

Updated 3:16 p.m.

A Duke Energy spokeswoman says the company will incorporate North Carolina environmental officials' feedback in reworking plans to assess groundwater at 14 coal ash plants across the state.

Gov. Pat McCrory said a second pipe at Duke Energy’s closed Dan River Steam Plant threatens to start a whole, new round of leakage from its coal-ash storage ponds.

He said state environmental officials sounded the alarm Friday “based upon an initial study” that showed “there’s still the potential for problems at the Dan River plant unless the problem is resolved very quickly.”

CHARLOTTE — Duke Energy was in a bind.

North Carolina regulators had for years allowed the nation's largest power company to pollute the ground near its plants without penalty. But in early 2013, a coalition of environmental groups sued to force Duke to clean up nearly three dozen leaky coal ash dumps spread across the state.