coal ash

October 20, 2016 - The record flooding across the Southeast from Hurricane Matthew has resulted in spills of waste from a Duke Energy coal ash pit, hog waste from factory farm lagoons, and sewage from water treatment plants.

September 23, 2016 - The predominantly poor, African-American community in Alabama that became the dumping ground for coal ash spilled in the 2008 TVA disaster in Tennessee is embroiled in an ongoing fight for environmental justice — and there's now an opening for the public to weigh in.

July 1, 2016 - An environmental group wants the N.C. Ethics Commission to investigate whether the McCrory administration withheld information about a dinner meeting with Duke Energy officials and used state resources to benefit his re-election campaign. It's not the first ethics complaint filed against McCrory — or the first involving his relationship with the utility.

May 26, 2016 - In recent weeks, the company got the N.C. Utilities Commission to require an unprecedented $10 million bond from grassroots groups seeking to block construction of a fracked gas plant and lobbied N.C. lawmakers to get a coal ash bill that watchdogs have blasted as a "bailout" and a "sweetheart deal."

May 5, 2016 - After local residents began raising concerns about cancer clusters near Duke Energy coal ash waste pits, the state cancer registry conducted a study that it claims shows there's no cause for worry — but a epidemiologist who reviewed the state's analysis says it does nothing of the sort.

April 15, 2016 - As pressure grows on power companies to move toxic coal ash out of leaky, wet impoundments and into dry, lined landfills, the experience of an African-American community near one such landfill in rural Alabama highlights the potential problems with that approach.

April 1, 2016 - North Carolina's carcinogen-contaminated drinking water near Duke Energy's coal ash dumps — and the political fight over what to do about it — should serve as a warning for problems to come in other historically coal-dependent states due to a lack of federal oversight for drinking water and coal ash disposal.

February 4, 2016 - Since environmentalists forced a cleanup of coal ash from a SCE&G power plant along South Carolina's Wateree River, test results show a dramatic decrease in groundwater contamination at the site, pointing to what's possible when utilities take responsibility for their pollution. Is North Carolina paying attention?

January 8, 2016 - People living near the utility's leaking coal ash ponds say they're appalled by the decision by North Carolina's environmental agency to downgrade risk ratings determined by staff — an action that underscores concerns about the close relationship between the company and the McCrory administration.

October 14, 2015 - Accusing state regulators and the utility giant of "extraordinary efforts" to marginalize conservation groups' interests in addressing coal ash pollution, the Southern Environmental Law Center has filed a legal action seeking to overturn a controversial settlement reached without the groups' input or knowledge.