water pollution
April 3, 2014 -
North Carolina regulators have found highly toxic thallium seeping from coal ash pits at two Duke Energy plants. Rep. Mike Hager -- the state lawmaker who co-chairs the committee that will handle coal ash cleanup legislation and former engineering manager for one of the thallium-leaking plants -- doesn't think the discovery is cause for alarm. Is his perspective shaped by his Duke connections?
March 26, 2014 -
Watchdog groups are raising concerns about calls to move coal ash from wet impoundments into dry landfills, warning of inevitable leakage from landfills that are typically located in low-income and minority communities. Instead, they propose storing the waste above ground in concrete vaults on power plant property.
March 21, 2014 -
Legal and regulatory pressure is building against North Carolina-based Duke Energy over its chronic mismanagement of toxic waste from coal-fired power plants. Meanwhile, environmental watchdogs using a hidden camera busted a Kentucky utility illegally dumping coal ash wastewater into the Ohio River.
March 14, 2014 -
Environmental groups have issued notice that they plan to sue a large North Carolina hog operation over illegal pollution. The company's president is a major political donor and the son of an influential former state lawmaker.
March 11, 2014 -
Before its coal-fired units were shuttered in 2012, Duke Energy's Dan River plant burned coal from mountaintop removal mines in Appalachia. The reality that the arsenic-laden ash now contaminating a North Carolina river was once a forested mountain peak highlights the destructive lifecycle of coal.
March 4, 2014 -
Even as Gov. Pat McCrory grapples with the Duke Energy coal ash disaster, he's pushing for another dirty energy interest to have access to the state's waters. While his plan is winning support from the Obama administration, he faces opposition in coastal communities back home.
February 28, 2014 -
A viral epidemic is killing pigs en masse in North Carolina, and that's created a serious disposal problem that environmentalists are calling on the governor to address.
