RFP Staff
♦ N.C. Department of Environmental and Natural Resources (NC DENR) sent out warning letters to 20 Rowan County families dwelling near the Buck Steam Station to avoid drinking well water or cook with it. This warning is due to heavy metal toxicity from the Duke Energy’s coal ash ponds.
NC DENR announced Tuesday that the testing of 87 private wells near 8 Duke Energy plants demonstrated results failing to meet state groundwater standards. A North Carolina state law was enacted in 2014 as a result of the Dan River spill that lead to NC DENR to sample wells within a 1,000 feet of Duke Energy’s 32 coal ash dumps.
The warning letters from the state cite overly high levels of the toxic metal vanadium commonly found in coal ash. Federal health officials ruled vanadium as hazardous to human health and is associated with various forms of cancer.
