POLKTON — While local environmentalists are planning to protest the Polkton landfill accepting coal ash, Duke Energy says the situation is less dangerous than some think.
Pee Dee Water, Air, Land and Lives and the Blue Ridge Environmental Defense League have encouraged Anson County residents to sign petitions and speak up at county commissioners’ meetings to convince the county to bar Waste Connections from accepting coal ash.
The Polkton landfill has been named as a potential site for Duke Energy to take coal ash if its first two locations are unavailable, according to Duke’s L.V. Sutton Electric Plant Coal Ash Excavation Plan available on Duke’s website.
Both groups have warned against the dangers of coal ash, from reduced property values to pollution or health risks. But Duke Energy says the process is safer than they think.
TRANSPORTATION
Both Pee Dee WALL and the Blue Ridge Environmental Defense League have taken issue with Duke’s plans to transport the coal ash to the Polkton landfill. In the plan, Duke lists trains as the first option with trucks as a backup plan.
During a meeting on Feb. 11, the groups said transportation could cause problems by allowing the coal ash particles to pollute the air, and that the process would cause more problems if there was an accident.
Jeff Brooks, a representative with Duke Energy, said the company has thought about transportation.
The plans only list Anson as a backup to the other two sites, Brooks stressed via email.
“We are currently moving ash from both sites by rail to the Brickhaven Mine in Moncure,” Brooks said. “Each train carries about 85 cars that can hold around 100 tons of coal ash each. The cars are covered with a cap that fully contains the coal ash and prevents any dusting issues, as referenced by the speakers in your story.”
In fact, he said the company chose to use trains to reduce the burden on communities like Anson.
“It would take more than 450 trucks to carry the amount of ash contained in one train to the Brickhaven Mine,” Brooks said. “We selected trains because they dramatically reduce the impact to local communities along the transport route by keeping thousands of trucks off the roads each month. In addition, trains provide the capacity needed to enable us to meet the very strict timelines set forth in the Coal Ash Management Ash for closure of ash basins at these sites (by August 2019).”
STORAGE
Anson is only a backup plan, Brooks said. He also said that if the coal ash does come, only the landfill will receive it. Members of both Pee Dee WALL and the league said in the meeting that they were concerned Duke may put coal ash in county mines if the ash is brought to Anson.
“The Anson County landfill has not been designated to receive coal ash from Duke Energy, except in the instance that the two mine projects do not prove suitable,” Brooks said. “And we have not identified any other clay mine projects in the state for storing coal ash.”
POLLUTION PREVENTION
Both Pee Dee WALL and league members said they were concerned about leachates, where sludge from the coal ash would leak out of the containing pools in the landfill. League member Therese Vick said that the liners in the pools are very thin, while others said they were concerned about runoff.
Brooks said neither group has anything to worry about.
“In any application, coal ash that is excavated from our sites will be stored dry,” Brooks said. “Only a small amount of moisture is used to aid in transport, and that moisture would leave the ash within a couple years of the storage cell being closed. Storing the ash dry takes away the ability for any of the ash constituents to be carried outside of the storage area.”
Brooks also addressed Vick’s concern about the liners used for the containing pools.
“In addition, all of the storage applications that we select feature multiple layers of natural and synthetic barriers to fully contain the ash on all sides and separate it from surrounding groundwater and the environment,” Brooks said.
“The projects use high-density polyethylene barriers as a synthetic barrier, which is exponentially more robust than a simple sheet of plastic. And the multiple layers of natural barriers, in addition to the synthetic barriers, provide extra margins of protection for the materials stored in the site. Extensive groundwater monitoring is used to ensure the containment system functions as designed.”
Brooks said the ash is always kept away from public water.
Pee Dee WALL and the environmental league planned to attend Tuesday evening’s county Board of Commissioners meeting to argue against allowing the landfill to accept coal ash — even as a backup plan.
The meeting was held after today’s edition of The Anson Record went to press.
Reach reporter Imari Scarbrough at 704-994-5471 and follow her on Twitter @ImariScarbrough.
