Flood Shuts Down N.C. Power Plant, Sweeps Waste Into River
September 21 2018 - 3:07PM
Dow Jones News
By Kris Maher and Erin Ailworth
River flooding caused the shutdown Friday of a natural-gas plant
near Wilmington, N.C. after several breaches in a cooling lake were
discovered and some waste tied to the facility's past as a
coal-fired plant entered waterways.
Duke Energy Corp. said Friday that the rising Cape Fear River
overtopped the dam at a cooling pond next to a coal-ash landfill at
its L.V. Sutton Power Plant. The plant burns natural gas after
coal-fired units were retired in 2013.
The company believes the coal ash -- which was about 5 feet
below a steel wall at last check -- is still contained, but Duke
Energy spokeswoman Paige Sheehan said she couldn't rule out the
possibility that coal ash was moving into the Cape Fear River.
Michael Regan, secretary of the North Carolina Department of
Environmental Quality, said at a press conference Friday that it
was unclear whether any coal ash had filtered into the river.
Friday's breaches came in the aftermath of Hurricane Florence,
which hit North Carolina a week ago bringing record rainfall over
days. Rivers are continuing to rise, and many parts of North
Carolina remain under water.
At the site there are two coal-ash storage basins. Ms. Sheehan
said floodwaters have submerged the 1971 coal-ash basin that sits
next to Sutton Lake -- a 1,100 acre cooling pond built to support
coal plant operations. The basin is separated from the cooling pond
by a steel wall that has also been submerged.
The company said water was flowing out of the south end of the
lake in a second breach, and that cenospheres, hollow beads made of
alumina and silica that are a byproduct of burning coal to create
electricity, are leaking into the Cape Fear River.
Cape Fear Riverkeeper Kemp Burdette said he was working to
launch a boat to assess the situation on Friday, and called any
seepage of coal ash into the river a serious concern.
"People should stay out of contact with the water," Mr. Burdette
said.
"Cenospheres are coal ash, so if cenospheres are moving into the
Cape Fear River, then that means coal ash is moving into the Cape
Fear River, " he said. If that happens, then floodwaters could be
carrying metals like arsenic, boron and chromium, he said.
The Sutton power plant has been a growing concern amid the
record flooding, as some coal ash has already leaked from the site.
On Sunday, the company said some coal ash washed into Sutton Lake
when part of the top of an earthen landfill was swept away by
floodwaters. At the time, the company said it didn't believe any
coal ash had escaped into the Cape Fear River.
--Jon Kamp contributed to this article.
Write to Kris Maher at kris.maher@wsj.com and Erin Ailworth at
Erin.Ailworth@wsj.com
(END) Dow Jones Newswires
September 21, 2018 14:52 ET (18:52 GMT)
Copyright (c) 2018 Dow Jones & Company, Inc.
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