Javascript Disabled Detected

You currently have javascript disabled. Several functions may not work. Please re-enable javascript to access full functionality.

Also, a mess in the Dan River of VA and NC

Started by Guest_Kanus_* , Feb 04 2014 10:01 PM

Reply to this topic

18 replies to this topic

#1 Guest_Kanus_*

Guests

Posted 04 February 2014 - 10:01 PM

Duke Energy said Monday that 50,000 to 82,000 tons of coal ash and up to 27 million gallons of water were released from a pond at its retired power plant in Eden into the Dan River, and were still flowing.

#2 Guest_Erica Lyons_*

Guests

Posted 04 February 2014 - 10:32 PM

I know that river! That's my power company! *curses*

#3 Guest_BenCantrell_*

Guests

Posted 05 February 2014 - 12:29 AM

I can't believe that is an acceptable toxic waste storage strategy.

Posted Image

#4 Guest_Erica Lyons_*

Guests

Posted 05 February 2014 - 12:49 AM

It is absolutely not. Also, what? I have inner tubed, kayaked, and canoed on that river. That's what was beyond those trees?

#5 Guest_Erica Lyons_*

Guests

Posted 05 February 2014 - 01:13 AM

I posted on the local fish club facebook group and two people have already responded that although they live literally on the banks of the Dan River, they did not know about this. It's not yet in the mainstream news. Why aren't people being notified as a precautionary measure not to drink the tap water?

#6 Guest_Mysteryman_*

Guests

Posted 05 February 2014 - 01:38 AM

It boggles my mind that this sort of storage is even allowed. How many of these accidents will it take before somebody does something about it?

#7 Guest_gerald_*

Guests

Posted 05 February 2014 - 11:11 AM

It's an old power plant; that was standard practice when it was built. Most garbage landfills were also on floodplains beside rivers. Danville VA is the closest downstream public water intake, then Roxboro NC and South Boston VA below that. The sludge will end up in Kerr Lake on the VA/NC border. From a native fish perspective, I think that site is downstream of the known locations of Roanoke Logperch and other rare species.

#8 Guest_jblaylock_*

Guests

Posted 05 February 2014 - 01:29 PM

Terrible news...

#9 Guest_harryknaub_*

Guests

Posted 06 February 2014 - 09:12 PM

[I can't believe that is an acceptable toxic waste storage strategy.]

Down here in Horry Co. South Carolina, we have a similar situation. Just outside of Conway, there is a decommissioned coal powered electric generating station that has holding ponds right alongside of the Waccamaw River. They contain quite a bit of Arsenic, I believe. Another disaster just waiting to happen.

Harry Knaub

#10 Guest_sbtgrfan_*

Guests

Posted 06 February 2014 - 09:43 PM

Just out of curiosity, for plants that are like that still, what can be done about it at this point in time to prevent it from happening again, for example with the one Harry mentioned in SC? Where would the waste go instead? Obviously, the plants aren't going away anytime soon, so are there alternatives to waste removal instead of holding ponds beside a river?

#11 Guest_fundulus_*

Guests

Posted 06 February 2014 - 11:22 PM

Ash is generated by burning coal, and the only thing worse than storing ash, etc., in ponds is to move it around. But, we move it around after ponds and dams burst, and ship it off to places like the Black Belt in Alabama where extreme poverty allows some people to say it's a good thing to landfill it there. Choose your poison.

#12 Guest_harryknaub_*

Guests

Posted 07 February 2014 - 07:47 PM

Here in Horry Co., I believe that the utility company is resisting the call to move the ash at least partly on economic grounds. It has to be very expensive to move decades worth of ash.

#13 Guest_fundulus_*

Guests

Posted 07 February 2014 - 09:47 PM

That company might be holding out for Superfund status, so that the federal government will do it for them. It's a form of socialism for the rich, why pay to clean up your own mess?

#14 Guest_Mysteryman_*

Guests

Posted 08 February 2014 - 07:05 PM

I can't help but hope that someone will actually find a use for the stuff someday. What if the ash could be turned into bricks or something?

Well, of couse they'd be toxic, but maybe the stuff the ash was mixed with to turn it into bricks would chemically bind with the toxic chems and make them harmless?

Edited by Mysteryman, 08 February 2014 - 07:07 PM.

#15 Michael Wolfe

Board of Directors

North Georgia, Oconee River Drainage

Posted 08 February 2014 - 09:44 PM

It is currently used in some concrete products, see below.

http://www.catawbari...al-ash-products

Either write something worth reading or do something worth writing. - Benjamin Franklin

#16 Guest_Ken_*

Guests

Posted 20 February 2014 - 02:57 PM

Thought I'd post this that I came across: http://greenpeaceblo...m_campaign=duke

#17 Guest_Erica Lyons_*

Guests

Posted 20 February 2014 - 03:12 PM

Thought I'd post this that I came across: http://greenpeaceblo...m_campaign=duke

It takes a certain type of person to value profits above the environment and the people who live in it.

This is the first large spill that has interfered with my personal waters. Will I be able to go canoeing, kayaking, and inner tubing this summer like I did last year? No.
Guess I'll take more five hour each way trips to the beach and find out what our coastline is like.

#18 Guest_gerald_*

Guests

Posted 20 February 2014 - 05:34 PM

East of Eden may now be Coal Ash Hell, but the upper Dan River and Mayo River to the west still have some lovely areas. There's a nice riverside park at Danbury that I went to a few years ago with Fritz and Dustin - we saw lotsa purty fish there, and easy access.

"It takes a certain type of person to value profits above the environment and the people who live in it."
>> There's a lot of those people, and even more who just don't care or don't pay attention.