Posted on Mon, Apr. 12, 2010 last updated: April 12, 2010
07:23:56 AM The state largely ignores millions of tons of ash
from coal-fired power plants that threatens to contaminate N.C.
groundwater, lakes and streams, the N.C. Sierra Club says in a
report today. Coal ash has gotten increased scrutiny since a
massive spill of ash sludge in Tennessee in late 2008. Ash
contains potentially toxic metals such as arsenic, cadmium and
mercury. The Sierra report, like a Charlotte Observer article in
December, focuses on the use of dry ash to fill gullies and
prepare roadbeds and building sites. More than 800,000 tons of
ash was used for so-called structural fill statewide last year,
the report says. Those sites don't have to be lined to keep
toxic material out of groundwater and aren't regularly checked
to find whether they're tainting water. Property deeds often
don't show that ash has been dumped, as state law requires. Ash
is known to have contaminated water in Robeson, Nash and
Northampton counties, according to st