Riverbend Ash Ponds
Excerpt from and Link to article about Riverbend Steam Station Ash Ponds from Carolina Weekly Newspapers.
Coal ash pond regulations may change
Rhiannon Bowman
news@mountainislandweekly.com
The coal ash ponds along the bank of Mountain Island Lake look like many other man-made ponds. They are surrounded by vegetation and attract wild animals.
The difference? Where the coal ash enters the first pond, the water is not fluid. It’s dense and dark gray. A thick matter that looks a lot like dried lava encircles half of one pond. Though it’s not considered dry, Duke Energy officials say it is hard enough to walk on.
The first pond covers 41 acres, about the size of 200 tennis courts. It is 80 feet deep. For comparison, a standard telephone poll is 55 feet tall.
The second pond covers 28 acres and is 70 feet deep. Its job is to sift the slurry for a second time.
Eventually the water drains from the second pond into Mountain Island Lake, many gallons a minute, Duke Energy officials said.
The water enters the lake just upstream from the Catawba River Pumping Station. The water is then piped to water treatment plants, where it is treated and released for use by residents and businesses throughout Mecklenburg County.
In June, the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency added the two coal ash ponds at Duke Energy’s Riverbend Steam Station to a list of high-hazard ponds. Agency officials took the action because the local ponds are so close to Charlotte’s sole source of drinking water, Mountain Island Lake, and an urban center. Environmental Protection Agency officials said they were not commenting on the soundness of the structures.
A total of 44 such ponds are included in the list, 12 of them in North Carolina, which has more than any other state.
Calling the coal ash basins “ponds” isn’t exactly accurate, though. Earthen dams or dikes, built using dam designs created by the U.S. Corps of Engineers, hold the coal ash-infused water back. However, those structures are exempt from the N.C. Dam Safety Act of 1967.
The N.C. House of Representatives, however, approved a revision the week of July 20 in a separate bill that removes the exemption and places responsibility for the regulation of coal ash waste with the N.C. Department of Environment and Natural Resources.
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