Originally published on February 7, 2014
As many as 82,000 tons of coal ash have spilled from a retired Duke Energy coal power plant in North Carolina into the Dan River after a stormwater pipe broke on Sunday (February 2).
According to Duke Energy, the pipe break was discovered at about 2 p.m. on Sunday. The company said they reported the spill to the North Carolina Department of Environment and Natural Resources at about 6:30 p.m. the same day.
The broken pipe was not reported by Duke Energy or the North Carolina Department of Environment and Natural Resources until Monday, nearly 24 hours after the incident.
According to a Reuters report, the the broken pipe released enough wet coal ash to fill between 20 to 32 Olympic-size swimming pools.
The clean-water advocacy group WaterKeeper Alliance said that laboratory analysis of water samples it collected from an affected part of the river showed "extremely high levels of arsenic, chromium, iron, lead and other toxic metals typically found in coal ash."
Duke Energy has been trying to contain the spill by using a temporary plug. A company spokeswoman said that there was no indication of when the spill would be fully contained.
North Carolina's Department of Environment and Natural Resources said it would continue to evaluate whether the water was safe in the river where fishing and canoeing are popular activities, Reuters reported.
No immediate threat to drinking water was reported.
According to the Washington Post, this isn't the first coal ash spill in the United States.
In 2008 a giant storage unit at the Tennessee Valley Authority's Kingston Fossil Plant ruptured, releasing 1.1 billion gallons of coal ash slurry that poured into the Emory River.
According to environmental groups, there are at least 207 sites in the U.S. where coal ash has contaminated the air or water, the Washington Post reported.
