New Head Of EPA Is Reportedly Taking North Carolina's Fight Against Coal Ash Ponds Nationwide

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Michael Regan, the former North Carolina environmental regulator who oversaw negotiations with Duke Energy Corp. DUK to initiate the largest cleanup of coal ash pollution in U.S. history, was appointed head of the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) last year. 

For the coal industry, the new EPA administrator’s first step was to reinstate Obama-era coal ash pollution restrictions last year. 

As enforcement of the renewed regulations begins this year — with three requests for deadline extensions already denied — it may be worth looking back at the Duke Energy coal ash spill in North Carolina that Regan helped clean up.

How the Largest, Most Expensive Coal Ash Cleanup Effort Came to Be

In February 2014, 39,000 tons of coal ash and 27 million gallons of wastewater spilled into the Dan River after Duke Energy’s lagoon failed. The sludge poured out for nearly a week before the company finally stopped the leak, spreading at least 70 miles down a river that 58,000 people relied on for drinking water. 

By May of 2015, Duke Energy pleaded guilty to multiple counts of crimes committed at sites across North Carolina and was put under a nationwide five-year probation, during which the company was supposed to develop and implement an environmental compliance plan. 

In 2018, Hurricane Florence inundated two other coal ash ponds operated by Duke Energy with floodwaters, causing toxic ash to spill through a faulty dam into Sutton Lake and Cape Fear River. That, combined with a smaller spill during Hurricane Matthew in 2016, spurred stricter requirements to full excavation of its coal ash sites in North Carolina. 

By the time the cleanup is finished within the next 10 to 15 years, Duke Energy will have spent between $8 and $9 billion in cleanup to excavate 124 million tons of coal ash across the company’s 14 North Carolina sites. 

While the company has agreed to excavate 80 million tons, it wants to deal with the rest using the cap-in-place method that involves sealing the pond where it is. While more cost-effective, ash in these capped-in-place ponds can still possibly leak into the groundwater and, if the seal is damaged during, say a hurricane, communities can still face the threat of potential spills. That’s part of what Regan’s EPA is now cracking down on.

Is Technological Innovation Helping Make Stricter EPA Guidelines More Commercially Viable?

The new restrictions, which are paying extra close attention to the problem of unlined coal ash ponds and improper use of cap-in-place methods, might demonstrate that Regan has not forgotten the impact poor coal ash storage and cleanup methods can have on communities and the environment. 

The EPA estimates that as many as 500 coal ash ponds across the nation are not compliant with the new restrictions and as many as 100 ponds may be sitting on top of groundwater, meaning the cap-in-place closures that most of them are implementing will no longer be allowed.

New innovations are reportedly finding ways to offset the costs of the more expensive but better excavation approach by developing new ways to reuse or process the coal ash into products that can be sold.

The SEFA Group, for example, supplied Duke Energy with three ash processing facilities housed at retired coal plant sites in North Carolina. The facilities are meant to allow Duke Energy to recycle the coal ash it is cleaning up into concrete. The ash-fortified concrete can result in a stronger, more durable construction material that Duke Energy could sell to offset the high costs of the cleanup.

Meanwhile, Midwest Energy Emissions Corp. MEEC (ME2C Environmental), whose portfolio of proprietary, patented sorbents are already the most effective mercury capture technologies according to a comparative study funded by the U.S. Department of Energy, now states it is adapting that technology to capture toxic contaminants and process rare earth elements (REEs) from that coal ash at the same time.

According to a recent report from the International Energy Agency (IEA) referenced by the Center for Strategic & International Studies (CSIS), the global critical minerals market (which includes REEs) could reach $400 billion as REEs and other minerals play a key role in the construction of rechargeable batteries for electric vehicles, wind turbines, and other critical infrastructure needs. ME2C’s hope is that, by being able to extract valuable REEs from the coal ash, while safely capturing the toxic contaminants, the new tech can incentivize the coal industry to comply with EPA regulations sooner rather than later.

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