Permanent Solutions Being Crafted For Ash Management
After the Dan River coal ash spill in February 2014, Duke Energy has been busy accelerating plans to close basins across the system and working aggressively to improve the company’s coal ash management practices.
The company performed a comprehensive engineering review of its ash basins to ensure the system continues to operate safely and to inform initial closure strategy recommendations.
Duke Energy is also working rapidly to close all 32 ash basins at its 14 North Carolina facilities in time to meet aggressive state deadlines of five to 15 years. The EPA also finalized a federal coal ash rule, which directs additional work
in North Carolina and across the rest of the company’s service area.
Already, the company has filed specific plans to excavate ash from Asheville Steam Plant, Dan River Steam Station, Riverbend Steam Station and Sutton Steam Plant – all in North Carolina – and the W.S. Lee Steam Station in South Carolina. Duke Energy will safely recycle the
ash or relocate it to a lined facility.
Site-specific engineering continues at other plants to transform initial closure strategies to the detailed engineering closure plans required by the new federal rule.
The company produced about 3.5 million tons of ash in 2014 across its coal fleet and manages about 280 million tons in ash basins, landfills and other storage units. About 48 percent of the ash produced was recycled in concrete products or used as fill material.
The company also formed a National Ash Management Advisory Board – an independent panel of experts – to help guide Duke Energy’s strategy around permanent coal ash
disposal solutions.
Ash: Proposed settlement reached with U.S. government
In February 2015, Duke Energy announced it had reached a proposed agreement with the U.S. government that, if approved, would close the federal investigation into the company’s Dan River coal ash spill and ash basin operations at other North Carolina coal plants.
The agreement identified nine misdemeanor violations of the Clean Water Act in connection with the spill and unauthorized discharges at various Duke Energy plants. The company is addressing each of the issues through facility improvements or new permitting.
Among the major provisions of the settlement:
- It requires Duke Energy Carolinas and Duke Energy Progress to pay a total of $68.2 million in fines and restitution and $34 million for community service and mitigation. These payments will be borne by shareholders, not customers.
- It also includes a five-year probationary period with a court-appointed monitor to ensure compliance with all provisions.
