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So while our state officials are fine with Duke Energy dumping all their crap in the creek at once and potentially poisoning our waterways (and drinking water), the pesky Feds think maybe some restraint should be exercised. Buncha party poopers.
So while our state officials are fine with Duke Energy dumping all their crap in the creek at once and potentially poisoning our waterways (and drinking water), the pesky Feds think maybe some restraint should be exercised. Buncha party poopers.
That actually is not what the article you linked said.
^^ Actually, yes it is. The state gave them the go-ahead to dump all the coal ash they wanted, at any rate they chose, with water monitoring every 6 months. The Feds, while agreeing that the ash can be dumped, want it to be done in a gradual manner, with constant monitoring of water quality.
"The Southern Environmental Law Center released documents Friday showing that the North Carolina Department of Environment and Natural Resources quietly gave Duke approval on Aug. 28 to start emptying liquids from all of its 33 coal ash dumps across the state through existing drain pipes at the facilities.
Drew Elliot, spokesman for the state environmental department, said the agency was simply following an Aug. 1 executive order from Gov. Pat McCrory directing it to move ahead with the closure of Duke’s ash pits. The state’s letter directed Duke to drain the ponds only down to the depth where the ash has settled."
From the article for others who don't want to read the whole thing.
For those who don't want to read the entire article
Quote:
“The applicable permits only require monitoring for a limited number of pollutants once every six months,” wrote Mark J. Nuhfer, an EPA official at the agency’s regional headquarters in Atlanta. “As a result, Duke Energy could draw the ponds down completely without taking a single sample to assess effluent quality, permit compliance, or water-quality impact.”
Quote:
Frank Holleman, a senior attorney for the Southern Environmental Law Center, said the state’s Aug. 28 letter would have given Duke free rein to dump far larger amounts of contaminated water with without public scrutiny.
“Thankfully, EPA has stopped (the state) from disregarding its own permits and from failing to protect North Carolina’s rivers and clean water,” Holleman said. “This shows once again that North Carolina’s citizens cannot count on DENR to protect our communities and clean water.”
I'm not trying to pee on your shoes, Bar, I'm just pointing out that from the article, your statement "The state gave them the go-ahead to dump all the coal ash they wanted, at any rate they chose," is incorrect.
I understand, but I have no faith in the state doing any monitoring of this, anyway. I've seen similar things on a local level, where a "higher authority" - the state - had to step in and put the city/county in time-out (a building permit moratorium, in our case) when we refused to upgrade our water and sewer system to minimal standards, while handing out new sewer connection permits left and right.
I'm not generally a fan of Big Brother, but too often Big Local Money will trump common sense and the greater good, and somebody higher up the ladder has to step in to prevent the local politicos from allowing us all to be poisoned or drowning us in our own waste.
China, who we've always looked down on as a land where they allow any and all polluting to go unchecked, has started to come down hard on factories that have been dumping their post-production waste in rivers and streams. How long until China starts looking down on us for the same reason?
For those who don't want to read the entire article
You said this:
So while our state officials are fine with Duke Energy dumping all their crap in the creek at once and potentially poisoning our waterways (and drinking water),
That article does not say that state officials are "fine" with putting poison into the waterways as you allege. I don't think anyone would be fine with that. It's pure hyperbole.
What it does say that they have to find a way to clean up the mess that has been ignored in this state for the last 80 years. Those ash dumps didn't just appear yesterday. Some of them have been there since the 1920s. Furthermore everyone in the state that has used electricity has been a beneficiary of the burning of that coal.
If you think there is a better way to dispose of this mess, then I'd like to hear it.
So while our state officials are fine with Duke Energy dumping all their crap in the creek at once and potentially poisoning our waterways (and drinking water),
That article does not say that state officials are "fine" with putting poison into the waterways as you allege. I don't think anyone would be fine with that. It's pure hyperbole.
What it does say that they have to find a way to clean up the mess that has been ignored in this state for the last 80 years. Those ash dumps didn't just appear yesterday. Some of them have been there since the 1920s. Furthermore everyone in the state that has used electricity has been a beneficiary of the burning of that coal.
If you think there is a better way to dispose of this mess, then I'd like to hear it.
Um, maybe by doing what the Feds say they should do? More frequent and more thorough water quality monitoring rather than testing for a handful of contaminants every 6 months? And gradually drain it, rather than overwhelming the rivers all at once with potentially high concentrations of pollutants?
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