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Debido a las malas condiciones de tanques donde se resguardan cenizas, sucedió un derrame masivo de cenizas sobre un río. La ceniza de carbón contiene numerosas sustancias tóxicas.

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RALEIGH - A bill backed by key North Carolina lawmakers would require Duke Energy to close all of its coal ash dumps across the state within 15 years, with much of the toxic material going into lined landfills.

A copy of the proposed legislation distributed Sunday to members of the state Senate was obtained by the Associated Press. It orders the nation's largest electricity company to stop pumping its ash into water-filled pits by the end of 2019. Duke's more than 100 million tons of existing ash would either have to be dug up and removed or sealed in place to stop contaminating groundwater.

The legislation, proposed by Senate leader Phil Berger and Senate Rules Chairman Tom Apodaca, comes four months after a massive spill at a Duke plant in Eden coated 70 miles of the Dan River in gray sludge.

Berger, R-Rockingham, lives in Eden. Apodaca, R-Henderson, has large coal ash pits in his home district near Asheville.

"We're dealing with the high-risk ponds right away," Apodaca said Sunday. "We've set up a plan to move forward, so we get out of the ash business totally with 15 years. That's total elimination of ash ponds or cap and seal."

A Senate committee is set to debate the measure Monday.

The Senate proposal would significantly alter an earlier plan put forward by Gov. Pat McCrory, which lacked firm closure deadlines and left it largely up to the discretion of regulators at the state environmental agency to decide how the coal ash pits would be closed. The new bill would create a nine-member commission to oversee that process, with the legislature appointing a majority of the members.

The bill would also require Duke to pay a fee to cover the cost of adding 29 new state employees to assist the commission and oversee environmental compliance at the dumps.

Duke has 33 unlined ash pits at 14 coal-fired power plants across the state, all of which state environmental officials say are contaminating groundwater and threatening nearby rivers and lakes. Coal ash contains numerous toxic substances, including arsenic, selenium, chromium, beryllium, thallium, mercury, cadmium and lead.

The Senate bill initiates a process in which each of the 33 pits will be assessed and assigned a level of risk to people and the environment. Those deemed to be of the highest risk would be closed within five years, while those of intermediate risk would have to be closed no later than 2024.

Duke would have two options for disposing of the ash: either moving it to lined landfills licensed to handle hazardous waste, or digging up the ash and constructing a lined landfill at the site of the former ash pond. Duke could also provide for mixing into concrete and other building products. No ash could be stored within 300 feet of a body of water, and the company would be required to monitor groundwater for contamination.

For dumps assigned the lowest level of risk, Duke would be allowed to propose capping the existing ash pit with liner and covering it with dirt. However, the company would be required to show leaving the ash in place under that option would no longer threaten the environment.

Once adopted by the Senate, the bill would head to the state House. If approved there, the measure would head to the desk of McCrory, who worked for Duke more than 28 years before becoming governor.

Duke has already said it intends to close its pits and remove the ash at four plants, located near Asheville, near Charlotte, near Wilmington, and the one in Eden where the spill occurred. At its remaining sites, the company wants to have the flexibility to consider options including the cap-in-place proposal.

Environmentalists worry that leaving the ash in place would allow for the continued contamination of groundwater near the plants.

Duke has said it could take decades and cost up to $10 billion if it is forced to remove its ash at all 33 sites, with the company's ratepayers footing most of the bill. The Senate proposal bars Duke from seeking such a rate hike through January 2015, but after that the company would be free to petition the North Carolina Utilities Commission for an increase.

Frank Holleman, a lawyer for the Southern Environmental Law Center, said the Senate bill still leaves far too much to the discretion of state environmental regulators who failed for years to address the threat posed by Duke's dumps. Most concerning, he said, the proposal would allow Duke to dispose of up to 100,000 tons of ash - more than twice the amount that spilled into the Dan River - into unlined "structural fills" such as for roadway construction.

"This bill falls far short of protecting North Carolina's communities and clean water from coal ash," Holleman said. "What North Carolina needs is a straightforward requirement that Duke Energy clean up its dangerous and polluting unlined, aging coal ash pits."

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Follow Associated Press writer Michael Biesecker at Twitter.com/mbieseck

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RALEIGH - A bill backed by key North Carolina lawmakers would require Duke Energy to close all of its coal ash dumps across the state within 15 years, with much of the toxic material going into lined landfills. A copy of the proposed legislation distributed Sunday to members of the state Senate was obtained by the Associated Press.

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Why it's time for Greenville to address environmental sins from its past.

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Why it's time for Greenville to address environmental sins from its past.

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Plantas eléctricas que operaban procesando carbón y petróleo, contaminaron en gran manera nuestro ambiente, tanto que hasta nuestros días seguimos viendo sus estragos.

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The concept of environmental protection is often presented as if there is a single "environment" that we all share and rely upon. But, would you be surprised to know that, even within the city limits of Greenville, some of us must live with a more polluted and hazardous environment than others?

In the mid-1800s through the 1950s, before natural gas was available as an energy source, manufactured gas plants (MGPs) existed throughout the United States. These plants operated by processing coal and oil into gas for lighting, heating and cooking. In a time before environmental laws, the pollution emanating from these plants was significant and poorly managed. Today, former MGP sites are notorious for the legacy contamination left over from decades of dirty operations. Where these sites have not been cleaned up, one can expect to find coal tar and cancer-causing volatile and semi-volatile organic compounds.

Greenville had two MGP operations in the early 1900s-one on Broad Street, across from what is now Northampton Wine, and the other on the corner of Bramlett Road and West Washington Street in Greenville's Southernside community. The condition of these two sites today tells a story of environmental inequity and of how the natural environment of all Greenvillians is not created equal.

Cleanup of the Broad Street MGP started in 1995. Duke Power, which operated the MGP, dug to the bedrock during multiple excavations of the property and utilized sophisticated aeration and injection systems to restore the property for residential development. Today on the old Broad Street site, one can experience "luxury living in Greenville" at the Ellison on Broad apartment complex.

In Southernside, by contrast, the only "redevelopment" of the MGP site is a failing barbed wire fence designed to keep residents out. Other than limited removal of structures and surface coal tar in 2000, contamination from the Bramlett MGP operation remains in the ground and water of Southernside, spreading toward and into the Reedy River.

Every day, residents and visitors walk, run and bike along our renowned Swamp Rabbit Trail, unknowingly passing within the shadow of the old MGP site, past acres of wetlands contaminated with its coal tar, and eventually overtop the ditch where contamination from the site still flows under the trail and into the Reedy River. Any toxins that have left this site over the past 100 years flow through downtown and over Reedy Falls, leaving fingerprints downstream at Lake Conestee.

How did two sites within the same city, contaminated by the same toxins, from the same operation during the same time period, by the same company, end up with such divergent outcomes? The answer most certainly has to do with the identity of the residents in the communities surrounding those sites.

The concept of environmental justice emerged from recognition that certain communities-typically low-income, minority, rural, or those otherwise lacking in political or capital influence - are often forced to bear a disproportionate burden of environmental harm. Indeed, in my career as a public interest environmental lawyer, I've observed that new landfills don't tend to get sited near second homes; that highway expansions don't disrupt wealthy neighborhoods; and that complaints from certain zip codes tend to get an inspector onsite more quickly.

As understanding of environmental justice has expanded, environmental fairness in this country has undoubtedly improved. Nevertheless, many communities are still plagued by the environmental sins of the past.

This is certainly true here in Greenville, where Southernside and other historically African-American or low-income communities are still trying to recover from bearing the brunt of Greenville's polluting industrial past for a century. More than just acknowledgement, this unfortunate legacy deserves our focused attention and deliberate action.

This Tuesday, Oct. 29, I am joining other environmental, faith, and community leaders in a conversation intended to drive action on the Bramlett MGP site and other historic environmental inequities in the Greenville area.

We hope that our program, entitled "Environmental Equity - A World of Possibilities," will be a catalyst for bringing environmental justice to the forefront in Greenville and the Upstate. The public is invited and encouraged to join us from 6-8 p.m. at Mountain View Baptist Church in Greenville to learn more about the Bramlett site and Southernside, to engage with a panel of experts on the topic of environmental justice, and to interact with local organizations and businesses that can provide actionable information on how to help. Go to villageengage.org to reserve your seat at this free community event.
Michael Corley is Upstate coordinator and attorney for the South Carolina Environmental Law Project, a public-interest law firm dedicated to protection of South Carolina's environment. He also is an adjunct professor of environmental law at Furman University and a board member of Friends of the Reedy River.

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Opinion: Why it's time for Greenville to address environmental sins from its past

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The concept of environmental protection is often presented as if there is a single "environment" that we all share and rely upon. But, would you be surprised to know that, even within the city limits of Greenville, some of us must live with a more polluted and hazardous environment than others?

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Gráfica de barras para conocer el porcentaje aproximado del uso del agua en nuestras actividades diarias.

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La gráfica de barras que realice tiene valores aproximados los cuales dependen de cada día. Normalmente trabajo 6 días a la semana, pero a veces trabajo también los domingos. Me levanto todos los días por la mañana y lo primero que hago es lavarme la cara con agua, pero sin jabón, esta actividad la realizo tres veces al día o más; después me cepillo mis dientes y utilizo pasta dental, el cual es un contaminante inorgánico, esto lo hago dos veces al día… en la mañana y en la noche antes de irme a dormir. Tomo agua dependiendo el clima; me lavo las manos varias veces al día con agua y jabón o desinfectante debido a la pandemia. Trabajo en construcción por lo que es muy fácil contagiarse del coronavirus, debido a la multitud de personas que trabajan y a la poca higiene por no tener lugares adecuados para tomar el receso o ir al baño, por lo que se trabaja respetando los parámetros establecidos. Cuando llego a casa tomo una ducha y ocupo shampoo, jabón para lavar el cuerpo; me vuelvo a lavar las manos, ceno con mi familia. Trabajo casi todos los días por lo que las actividades en donde intervenga el agua casi siempre son las mismas.

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Casi todos los ríos importantes del sureste tienen cerca uno o mas pozos con ceniza sin revestimiento. Debido a las malas condiciones de estos tanques, se esta contaminando el agua de los ríos, lagos y agua subterránea durante décadas. Estos pozos contienen millones de toneladas de desechos cargados de toxinas, filtrando arsénico, mercurio, talio, selenio, y otros contaminantes dañinos al agua.
En Carolina del Sur, una combinación de acción legal y presión pública de SELC (Southern Environmental Law Center) llevó a las tres principales empresas de servicios públicos del estado a limpiar todos sus pozos de cenizas de carbón sin revestimiento con fugas en los ríos de Carolina del Sur, esto sin duda es un logro histórico para el agua limpia en Carolina del Sur.

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Protecting Our Water and Health from Coal Ash

Nearly every major river in the Southeast has one or more unlined, leaking pits on its banks filled with water and holding coal ash from power plants. Containing millions of tons of toxin-laden waste, these pits are unlined and have leaked arsenic, mercury, thallium, selenium, and other harmful contaminants into the rivers and the underlying groundwater for decades.
Putting a Stop to Decades of Pollution
SELC is in federal and state courts to force utilities to clean up their unlined, leaking coal ash waste sites and protect our clean water and people's health. When state and federal governments did not act following a devastating 2008 spill in Kingston, TN, we began enforcing the law ourselves on behalf of local citizen groups.

In North Carolina, our lawsuits have produced cleanup commitments at eight Duke Energy coal ash sites, and SELC continues to represent a number of community groups to require the clean up or recycling of coal ash at all 14 of Duke Energy's leaking, unlined coal ash sites across the state.

In April 2019, North Carolina DEQ determined that Duke Energy must remove all of its coal ash from its six remaining sites where its coal ash sits in the groundwater in unlined pits next to lakes, rivers and drinking water sources. The state order followed review of scientific evidence and public meetings and comments in which thousands of North Carolinians called upon Duke Energy to remove its coal ash from unlined waterfront pits in the state. However, Duke Energy refused to accept the state decision and is litigating to avoid having to comply. The state and local community groups represented by the Southern Environmental Law Center are opposing Duke Energy in the N.C. administrative court and supporting the scientific determinations made.

In South Carolina, a combination of legal action and public pressure from SELC prompted all three of the state's major utilities to clean up all of their leaking, unlined coal ash pits on South Carolina's rivers - a historic accomplishment for clean water in South Carolina.

In Virginia, we uncovered decades of coal ash pollution leaking from three different Dominion Virginia Power sites: the Bremo site on the James River, the Possum Point Power Plant along the Potomac River, and the Chesapeake Energy Center along the Elizabeth River. Virginia later enacted legislation requiring Dominion to excavate all of its coal ash pits in that state.

In Tennessee, the Tennessee Valley Authority (TVA) settled litigation with the state of Tennessee and conservation groups represented by the Southern Environmental Law Center and agreed to remove 12 million tons of coal ash from an unlined pit at its Gallatin Plant on the Cumberland River near Nashville, which provides drinking water for 1.2 million residents downstream.

Advocating Tougher Standards
Despite the dangers revealed by the catastrophic Kingston spill in 2008 and the 2014 Dan River spill in NC, only in 2015 did the EPA put its coal ash rule (known as the Coal Combustion Residuals or CCR rule) into effect. Under the current administration and at the request of coal ash polluters, EPA weakened the rule's requirements for safer handling of coal ash and separating it from groundwater that would have been self-implemented by the utilities and enforceable by citizens. SELC will continue to enforce stronger U.S. and state clean water and anti-pollution laws to protect rivers and communities from the dangers of coal ash.

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Nearly every major river in the Southeast has one or more unlined, leaking pits on its banks filled with water and holding coal ash from power plants. Containing millions of tons of toxin-laden waste, these pits are unlined and have leaked arsenic, mercury, thallium, selenium, and other harmful contaminants into the rivers and the underlying groundwater for decades.

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Esto es solo una pequeña muestra de como es afectada la biodiversidad del ecosistema por la contaminación del agua.

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Cinco acciones cotidianas para optimizar el uso del agua en tu entorno

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Cinco acciones cotidianas para optimizar el uso del agua en tu entorno

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·      Se multan a las personas que se sorprendan arrojando basura en la calle, en zonas verdes o ríos; si no pagas la multa puedes ir a la cárcel o realizar un servicio comunitario limpiando carreteras o ayudando a ciertas instituciones comunitarias.

·      Se ponen contenedores para arrojar la basura en áreas recreativas cerca de los ríos o lagos.

·      Existen señalamientos donde muestran los lugares apropiados en donde se puede arrojar la basura clasificándolos por orgánicos e inorgánicos .

·      Existe personal para proteger las zonas forestales

·      Se paga un servicio para que vengan a recoger tu basura cada semana y así no se te acumule en tu casa y cuando llueva no se vaya esa contaminación hacia los ríos.