RALEIGH, N.C. (AP) - People living near Duke Energy’s North Carolina coal ash pits say it’s time the state geared up to determine how harmful chemicals in drinking water are.
Coal ash neighbors marked 1,000 days Thursday of depending on bottled drinking water because of fears their household wells were tainted by potentially harmful chemicals.
Duke Energy this week agreed to pay $84,000 and do more to stop potentially toxic waste leaking into groundwater and nearby rivers near three coal-burning power plants. The company acknowledged the leaks from unlined, earthen holding basins, a violation of pollution laws.
Democratic legislators said Republicans controlling the Legislature should equip the state’s environmental and health agencies to better study and limit harm to waters tainted by coal ash or chemicals like GenX, a concern for the Wilmington area.
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