{"id":12788,"date":"2015-09-30T05:48:50","date_gmt":"2015-09-30T10:48:50","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/olduvai.ca\/?p=12788"},"modified":"2015-09-30T05:48:50","modified_gmt":"2015-09-30T10:48:50","slug":"north-carolina-settles-with-duke-energy-over-coal-ash-groundwater-contamination-ratepayers-may-shoulder-costs","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/olduvai.ca\/?p=12788","title":{"rendered":"North Carolina Settles With Duke Energy Over Coal Ash Groundwater Contamination, Ratepayers May Shoulder Costs"},"content":{"rendered":"
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North Carolina Settles With Duke Energy Over Coal Ash Groundwater Contamination, Ratepayers May Shoulder Costs<\/a><\/h3>\n

\"Rhiannon<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n

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This is a guest post by Rhiannon Fionn, an\u00a0independent investigative journalist and filmmaker in post-production on the documentary film \u201cCoal Ash Chronicles<\/a>.\u201d<\/em><\/p>\n

North Carolina\u2019s Department of Environmental Quality today\u00a0announced a settlement agreement<\/a>\u00a0with Duke Energy, ending a lawsuit over the department\u2019s $25.1 million fine for groundwater contamination resulting from coal ash stored at the company\u2019s Sutton plant near Wilmington,\u00a0N.C.<\/span>\u00a0Although the settlement covers groundwater contamination at 14 of Duke\u2019s coal ash facilities and requires accelerated cleanup of groundwater contamination at four sites, activists and residents I spoke with today were not impressed by the\u00a0announcement.<\/p>\n

Since a judge approved the settlement, there will be no opportunity for public\u00a0comment.<\/p>\n

\u201c<\/span>I am again disappointed with the department, but not terribly surprised,\u201d said Catawba Riverkeeper Sam Perkins. \u201cThis is an impressive new low,\u201d he added. \u201cThey put a proposed fine out there, but they\u2019ve not only reduced it, they diluted it to 14\u00a0sites.\u201d<\/p>\n

The state reports the settlement is for an estimated $20 million, though the company doesn\u2019t agree. Paige Sheehan, a Duke representative, estimates the cost to remediate groundwater at its Sutton plant alone will run $3-$5 million, and less at smaller coal ash\u00a0sites.<\/p>\n

According to Sheehan, $7 million of the settlement\u00a0http:\/\/www.duke-energy.com\/news\/releases\/2015092901.asp<\/a>\u00a0will be paid by shareholders, but she left open the possibility that the company will seek a rate increase from the\u00a0N.C.<\/span>\u00a0Utilities Commission to cover groundwater remediation\u00a0costs.<\/p>\n

In Nov. 2014,\u00a0WRAL<\/span>.com reported<\/a>\u00a0that Duke set aside $3.4 billion for coal ash cleanups in N.C., which includes the removal of much of the waste to lined landfills in multiple\u00a0states.<\/p>\n

Crystal Feldman, director of communications for\u00a0DEQ<\/span>, told me settlement negotiations began in March after Duke Energy sued the agency for levying the\u00a0state-record $25 million fine<\/a>\u00a0against the company. Duke called the fine \u201cunprecedented\u201d and balked at the requirement to run municipal water lines when it was already doing\u00a0so.<\/p>\n

…click on the above link to read the rest of the article…<\/p>\n

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North Carolina Settles With Duke Energy Over Coal Ash Groundwater Contamination, Ratepayers May Shoulder Costs This is a guest post by Rhiannon Fionn, an\u00a0independent investigative journalist and filmmaker in post-production on the documentary film \u201cCoal Ash Chronicles.\u201d North Carolina\u2019s Department of Environmental Quality today\u00a0announced a settlement agreement\u00a0with Duke Energy, ending a lawsuit over the department\u2019s […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_monsterinsights_skip_tracking":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_active":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_note":"","_monsterinsights_sitenote_category":0,"footnotes":""},"categories":[4],"tags":[9400,9401,5317,9402,3972,9399,9404,866,9403],"class_list":["post-12788","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-environment","tag-coal-ash","tag-department-of-environmental-quality","tag-desmog-blog","tag-duke-energy","tag-groundwater-contamination","tag-north-carolina","tag-remediation","tag-water","tag-wilmington"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/olduvai.ca\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/12788","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/olduvai.ca\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/olduvai.ca\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/olduvai.ca\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/olduvai.ca\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=12788"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/olduvai.ca\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/12788\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":12789,"href":"https:\/\/olduvai.ca\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/12788\/revisions\/12789"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/olduvai.ca\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=12788"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/olduvai.ca\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=12788"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/olduvai.ca\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=12788"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}