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Page added on September 21, 2018
Duke Energy says dam breached at North Carolina plant and coal ash may be flowing into Cape Fear River
Floodwaters on Friday breached a dam that contains a man-made lake connected to a Duke Energy power plant in North Carolina, possibly causing coal ash to flow into the nearby Cape Fear River, the company said.
The floodwaters flowed from Cape Fear River into the northern side of Sutton Lake, an 1,100-acre reservoir built in 1972 to cool the L.V. Sutton Power Station. That water caused breaches in the dam on the south end of the lake, which was flowing back into the river, Duke Energy said in a press release.
The 200-mile Cape Fear River flows into the Atlantic at Wilmington, North Carolina.
The Sutton site in Wilmington was home to a coal-fired power plant until 2013, when Duke replaced it with a natural gas power station. Duke dismantled the coal-fired plant by 2017, but the grounds contained about 7 million tons of coal ash in waste pits at the time of its closure. There are still two coal ash basins on site.
The flooding forced Duke to shut down the 625-megawatt natural gas plant, and the company is monitoring the coal ash pits.
Coal ash is a byproduct produced primarily at coal-fired power plants. It contains contaminants harmful to human health including mercury, cadmium and arsenic.
Heavy rain from Florence caused one of the coal ash landfills to partially collapse, Duke reported on Saturday. The incident likely caused coal ash to run off into Sutton Lake, a Duke spokesperson told the AP.
On Friday, Duke said it believes coal ash contained in one of the basins remains in place behind a steel wall that separates Sutton Lake from a site where the waste is still being excavated. That steel wall was under water, the company said, but an earthen part of the dam setting off the basin remained 2 feet above the surface.
Another type of coal combustion byproduct, cenospheres composed mostly of alumni and silica, has flowed from that basin into Sutton Lake and Cape Fear River, Duke said.
The second basin, which contains most of the sites ash, is about 10 feet from the floodwater and has not been affected, Duke said.
Shares of Duke Energy, which were higher before the news hit, rolled over and were down less than 1 percent Friday afternoon.
Hurricane Florence packed high wind and rain measured in feet to the Carolinas, followed by rising rivers and standing water in fields.
Florence made landfall on Sept. 13 as a Category 1 hurricane in a resort town just east of Wilmington, North Carolina’s eighth-largest city. The city of more than 117,000 people has been cut off by floodwaters. At least 42 storm-related deaths have been reported in the region, according to AP.
David Fountain, president of Duke Energy‘s North Carolina operations, told CNBC on Monday that the impact from Florence has been the most severe he’s ever experienced.
“I’ve lived in North Carolina my entire life, and I’ve seen a lot of bad storms, a lot of bad hurricanes. But this is absolutely the worst,” Fountain said.
Property damage and disruption from Florence is expected to total at least $17 billion to $22 billion, but that estimate could end up being on the conservative end, according to Moody’s Analytics.
The company estimates 49,000 homes and businesses were still without power late this week.
11 Comments on "Duke Energy says dam breached at North Carolina plant and coal ash may be flowing into Cape Fear River"
twocats on Fri, 21st Sep 2018 4:03 pm
certainly this is one of the worst storms to hit NC – but slowly they should recover and allow themselves to be rebuilt one final time before the EOC (end of civilization)
George Straight on Fri, 21st Sep 2018 4:59 pm
Burn more COAL….more climate change in the pipeline and this is just the tip of the what will come….we are fcked…Turn on the A/C and grab a cold one…enjoy
Go Speed Racer on Fri, 21st Sep 2018 6:49 pm
That’s what’s great about all this flooding
from the hurricanes..
It washes away all the toxic waste dumps
properly, puts it all in the ocean
where it belongs.
makati1 on Fri, 21st Sep 2018 6:57 pm
Now, imagine if Florence had been a cat 4 or 5… Be patient.
twocats on Fri, 21st Sep 2018 8:07 pm
actually mak, i was interested to read today that Florence has meandered back out to the ocean and is bringing rain to South Carolina, where flooding is now happening. AND there is a 20% chance that Florence will REFORM and make landfall again.
Maybe getting double-dipped by a hurricane will wake some chuds up.
can’t wait to see an apocalypse film depict a lagoon of dead pigs floating by
makati1 on Fri, 21st Sep 2018 8:35 pm
It is not unusual for a hurricane to back up and hit again.
“North Atlantic Hurricane Track History for 1950-2013”
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BqC2h-i4_g8
Most Philippine typhoons pass over the country quickly. The last one hit and was gone in 24 hours.
Bloomer on Fri, 21st Sep 2018 8:56 pm
Make Coal great again. Mountaintop strip mine, to burn and release tons of carbon dioxide and leave behind toxic waste boiler ash. We are a fucked up species.
Go Speed Racer on Fri, 21st Sep 2018 11:16 pm
Bloomer U forgot to toss some old
tired and couches into that coal fire.
Makes it smoke more.
Go Speed Racer on Fri, 21st Sep 2018 11:17 pm
tires and couches
deadly on Sat, 22nd Sep 2018 5:07 am
You must remain positive during this current extinction event, don’t let it get you down.
It can only get worse, look on the bright side of things, nothing can be done about extinction other than to look forward to it, so cheer up. Have to move on, don’t look back.
Ashes to ashes, dust to dust, if the worms don’t get us, the buzzards must.
Nothing worse than too much water. Everything goes on the fritz. Too much water means no plumbing, no running water at all. Your basement is full of water, flooded. A very disheartening and stressful situation. If the flood waters don’t recede, you’ll be moving to a different location. It is permanent, a dire predicament. It does happen, the house is surrounded by water and you have to move.
If you have ever dealt with ash of any kind, it is heavy and tough to move even when dry. The wind won’t blow it away, maybe some of it, but very little. You’ll be shoveling it if you want it gone. I tore down a small garage filled with useless lumber and old insulation, gypsum board, old nails, all had to go. Burned the lumber and hauled away the ash, not an easy job to remove ash, believe me. It was loads of fun to burn it all, drank beer, had a blast.
Some of the coal ash at the power plant might be washed into the river, but I would say not much of the seven million tons of it. You would need a water cannon to make any significant headway to the moving of the ash.
The coal might contain uranium too, so don’t throw it away, it has value.
I used to remove coal ash from the old coal furnace at my childhood home, fill the ash pail, clean up the ashes, let them cool, and either toss them into the trash or during the winter, spread them on icy areas of the sidewalk.
Coal ash is a son of a gun to make go away.
There was a coal bin in the basement and you would fill the firebox with coal, didn’t need electricity at all, a very safe way to heat your home and the heating source doesn’t fail if the electricity is interrupted. Four ton of coal in the coal bin will heat your home when the temperatures become cold and the winter season is here to stay until spring weather gets there. Coal burns a long time if it is good coal, less ash, more hydrocarbons.
Coal, the simple way to burn it, right there where you are, is the best way to insure that you will remain warm and calm during a stormy winter night filled with fear and loathing that something might go wrong.
You do feel very secure with coal on hand and either a coal furnace or a Buck stove.
Free Speech Forum on Sun, 23rd Sep 2018 4:48 am
Americans scream that people should be moral and obey the law, but then they shrug when told that Trump broke the law when he cheated on his wife by illegally using a prostitute.
WTF?