Trucks full of toxic coal ash from the Carolinas began arriving in Banks County, Georgia this week after Duke Energy was forced to clean up its act at plants in Charlotte NC and Anderson SC.
Coal ash is the byproduct of coal-burning power plants. It contains arsenic and other heavy metals harmful to animals and humans.
Duke Energy is relocating their coal ash to a “fully lined” landfill near Homer because North Carolina lawmakers and the federal government cracked down after the poor job the company did storing coal ash there. Trucks started hauling deposits from Charlotte this week with plans for shipments from Anderson set to begin in the next few days.
John Elnitsky, Duke Energy’s senior vice president for ash strategy, says the move presents no danger to local folks, “We’re managing this project in a way that meets the highest standards for safety.” Those safety measures include transporting the ash “moist” in covered trucks. They also wash down each truck after it is loaded and covered to control dust from the site. Elnitsky says they doing just 10 trucks per day to “minimize impacts on neighbors.”
Duke Energy doesn’t have the best track record when it comes to handling this stuff. The company stores more than 150 million tons of coal ash at 32 sites in North Carolina. State regulators say all of those sites currently leak toxic contaminants into groundwater.
Last week, attorneys for the company pleaded guilty to nine criminal violations of the federal Clean Water Act and admitted negligence. The plea resulted in a $102 million fine for pollution resulting from the way the company stores coal ash. Duke is also under a deadline, set by state lawmakers, to cap and close all their coal ash storage facilities in North Carolina before 2029. The legislature took action after a major contamination of the Dan River in February 2014.
Waste Management’s R&B Landfill in Banks County is considered “safe” for storing coal ash by Georgia environmental regulators.
The site is on Bennett Rd about 3 miles outside Homer. It is “fully lined” which, according to Georgia law, means it has a flexible membrane under and surrounding the waste. The liner is 60-mil-thick (1/16 of an inch) textured High Density Polyethylene (HDPE) material as well as a two foot layer of low permeability soil (mostly clay) to keep the waste from coming into contact with the environment. The Banks County site also includes a system to collect and remove “leachate” which is rain water that filters through the waste.
Elnitsky says Duke is planning to build similar lined landfills near their power plants in the coming years to help deal with the coal ash themselves. Until those are finished, they will continue to use disposal sites in other states like the one near Homer.
