coal ash

Dominion Virginia Power will close all its coal ash ponds at power plants in Virginia to comply with standards established by state and federal regulations. The company announced on April 17 that it would close ponds at four locations: Bremo Power Station in Fluvanna County, Chesapeake Energy Center in Chesapeake, Chesterfield Power Station in Chesterfield […]

Closure and remediation solutions for coal ash ponds, or impoundments, vary greatly. Assuming the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) promulgates the expected proposed Subtitle D regulations, technical

Five coal ash ponds at a Dominion power plant in Virginia have discharged coal ash pollutants into waterways for decades, environmental groups allege in a notice.  The Southern Environmental Law Center, representing the Potomac Riverkeeper and the Sierra Club, on Sept. 17 told Dominion and the Virginia Department of Environmental Quality (DEQ) that it will sue […]

Though unsigned by its governor, North Carolina has enacted the nation’s first comprehensive coal ash management law.  The statute, which took effect on Sept. 20, applies to all unlined dry and wet coal ash ponds owned by public utilities, including ponds that are covered or no longer in use. Beginning Oct. 1, 2014, no new […]

North Carolina’s Legislature last week became the first in the nation to approve a sweeping coal ash bill, but the state’s governor isn’t fully endorsing it.  Both the House and the Senate on Aug. 20 approved the Coal Ash Management Act (S.B. 729), a measure that became an urgent legislative priority after Duke Energy’s February […]

Duke Energy is scrambling to contain another major river spill—this time, of about 5,000 gallons of diesel. The company on Tuesday reported that the discharge of diesel oil #2 into the Ohio River inadvertently occurred at about 11:15 p.m. during a routine transfer of fuel oil used for boiler ignition sources at the W.C. Beckjord […]

Environmental and climate protection does not stop at the stack of a power plant. Disposal of separated combustion residuals, for example, must also be environmentally friendly. More and more nations are

North Carolina state officials on Friday cited Duke Energy for a 40-foot-long crack in an earthen dam at the 2012-retired Cape Fear Plant’s ash impoundment, to which the company last week made emergency repairs. The North Carolina Department of Environment and Natural Resources (DENR) issued Duke Energy with a notice of deficiency on Friday for the longitudinal […]

The Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) must issue a proposed revision of its Resource Conservation and Recovery Act (RCRA) Subtitle D rules regulating coal combustion residuals no later than Dec. 19, 2014, under a consent decree reached between the agency and environmental groups that was filed in federal court today.  The U.S. District Court for the District of Columbia […]

Duke Energy’s drive to reorient its fleet away from coal took another step on Nov. 4 when it announced demolition plans for its 84-year-old Riverbend Steam Station in Gaston County, N.C. The 454-MW plant was one of Duke’s oldest fossil assets, having come online in 1929. It was retired in April, two years ahead of […]