David Giachini of the North Carolina Department of Environmental Quality goes through a PowerPoint presentation at the public hearing on coal ash closure plan in Walnut Cove Tuesday night. - Neill Caldwell | The Stokes News
WALNUT COVE – At a public hearing here Tuesday night, any sense of celebration over the settlement with Duke Energy that will require the corporate giant to clean up nearly 12 tons of coal ash at its Belews Creek Steam Station was tempered by the realization that it will be a very long process.
And a process that will be done by Duke Energy itself, an entity with which local coal ash activists lost confidence in a long time ago.
“Our community has lost trust in Duke Energy,” said David Hairston of the Walnut Tree community. “We’d like to third party to test our water quality.”
Dan Riverkeeper Steven Pulliam called it a “fox guarding the hen house” situation.
The public hearing was conducted by the North Carolina Department of Environmental Quality (NCDEQ) to receive comments from the people who will be most affected by the coal ash cleanup. And while the presenters and the listeners were from NCDEQ, many of the comments were directed at Duke Energy, which did have some representatives present in the room.
“We know the job is far from done,” said the Rev. Greg Hairston, “but what we have found to be proven thus far is that Duke Energy does not tell the truth.”
“We hope that this is the first step forward in a decade of recovery,” said Caroline Armijo of The Lilies Project, “but we’re tired. We want to make sure that Duke Energy meets their agreement because we know the work is not yet complete. We hope that Belews Creek becomes a model of remediation. But Duke’s investment has been too little, too late.”
A fairly brief presentation was made by NCDEQ engineers about what has happened to date and what will happen in the future. (See related story.)
During the Q&A time, Pastor Hairston asked what will happen to the coal ash being burned now and over the 11 years it will take to finish the landfill and the cleanup. He was told that the ash will no longer be stored in a wet condition in a lagoon but will be disposed of as dry ash in the landfill. He was also told that the plant now has state-of-the-art scrubbers on its smokestacks to control emissions.
“This has affected people of color more than any other group,” Hairston went on to say. “It may not be visible because of the scrubbers but it’s still there. … They’ve been poisoning us for too long.”
Martha Hartley said that the creation of the power station 50 years ago eradicated an African American community known as Little Egypt. “Now those descendants have suffered for generations. We’ve seen people in our community who’ve suffered and died for breathing this poison.”
“When I heard the news of a settlement on Christmas Eve, it was hard not to weep,” added Armijo. “I was filled with grief and sorry for all those we have lost.”
Nick Torrey of the Southern Environmental Law Center urged that the power company be held accountable.
“We’ve happy to see this plan move forward,” he began. “To get the coal ash out of unlined, leaking lagoons and put into a new space that is lined and designed not to leak represents an enormous victory over what we have now. This community has lived with coal ash for a long time.”
Most speakers thanked the NCDEQ for ordering the cleanup, and many spoke their concerns about the safety of those workers who will have to conduct the containment operations at the plant.
“We do thank DEQ for answering the demands of this community,” said Reg Graham of Appalachian Voices, an environmental group that has been active in its support of Walnut Cove.” But we urge that worker safety be made a priority.”
Comments can be made via email at belewscreekcomments@ncdenr.gov, or on the website deq.nc.gov/news/key-issues/coal-ash-excavation-belews-creek-steam-station-coal-ash-closure-plan.