HomeMy WebLinkAboutVII. Meeting Notes - MayoNotes March 16, 2016 Public Meeting Mayo -Roxboro Coal Ash Risk Classification
Nick Torrey, Southern Environmental Law Center (SELC)
• Recommends that Mayo -Roxboro are not low priority.
• These people are serious and deserve to have coal ash ponds classified as high priority.
• Coal ash will continue to leach contamination.
• DEQ is doing a disservice by knowingly allowing Duke Energy to pollute these lakes.
• Roxboro and Mayo already have dry, lined storage.
Brooks Rainey -Pearson, SELC
• Person Co. not a low -priority and not low risk
• Duke has lined landfill for ash
• There will be no need to drive ash a long distance.
• Ludicrous to leave ash where it is.
• Cheaper? Yes. Safer? No.
• Asked DEQ to classify as high risk.
Andrew Lester, executive director, Roanoke River Basin Association
• Concerned coal ash contamination will get into groundwater
Sue Fife, resident
• Woman brought in bottled water and handed to Elizabeth W.
• We don't need to wait 20 years.
• We need to do it now.
Tanya Evans, dist. Manager for Duke Energy
• 1 call Person Co. home.
• 1 understand how important Hyco and Mayo lakes are to people
• Important to close ash basins
• Community important to us because we work here and live here too.
• We are closing ash ponds in ways that are safe and protect public health and the environment;
manage costs.
• All closure plans protect groundwater
• No indication that coal ash is impacting peoples' wells.
• Closure plans will make sure ...safe for future
• We will update neighbors through one-on-one contacts, mailings.
Patrick Wiley
• Duke Energy let coal ash contamination leak into groundwater for decades.
• Significant under RCRA
• Good corporate citizens do no carelessly dump on neighbors
• 30 days not long enough to finalize draft closure plans.
Frances Blalock
• Co chair of GoDanRiver, an environmental group in Person Co.
• 140 acres — Mayo impoundment will be enormous cleanup
• Can be capped left where it is, excavated and can be put in Duke Energy protective facility or
put in landfill.
• Only one acceptable solution — put in Duke Energy landfill
• Don't want coal ash taken to landfill.
• Person County should be at top of cleanup list b/c we hold the title as the queen of coal ash.
Doyle Peed
• Owns 56 acres near Mayo ash pond
• Concerns for drainage of ash pond.
Nick Wood
• Act Against Coal Ash
• Concerned people don't know their drinking water
• Statewide problem
• It took disaster on Groundhogs Day to get government to wake up.
• Yet to see anything from Governor McCrory
• Secret dinner with Duke — Governor McCrory, Department of Environmental Quality Secretary
Van der Vaart.
• A $25 million fine from the state went to $7 million fine
• Then, Mr. Reeder from DHHS (cq) rescinded Do not Drink Orders
• Water is still not safe to drink; need facts to test wells. Let's have a solution based on
independent testing.
Rosemarie Sawdon
• Permanent resident of Person Co.
• And represents the Sierra Club
• All should be classified as high risk to be sure that all coal ash is stored in dry lined storage
away from the river.
• 287,000-plus people rely on drinking water downstream
• Roxboro is one Duke's largest coal ash sites with 19.4 million tons of ash in unlined pits and
discharged into Hyco Lake.
• Mayo coal ash pond is located and flowing into Mayo Lake
• None should be ranked as low risk. Everyone deserve a good quality of life with clean water.
Marji Stehle
• Lives in Hyco Lake in full view of the power plants.
• One summer day Mayo plant was spewing black smoke. Contacted Duke Energy, never got a
response about what black smoke was all about.
• Now they want us to trust them and I've got a real problem with that.
Marcus Henderson
• Person County resident
• Asked that testing be conducted beyond the 1,500-foot boundary of coal ash ponds. State
should test until you find no contamination.
Andy Withers
• Angry at letters to Courier Times — one from Dem. Sen. Woodard was the worst.
• Letters intend to scare people.
• State regulators made up MCLs that were higher than they ever should have been
• MCLs for vanadium and Chromium 6. Ponds should be classified as low risk. Should stay the
same.
• Delighted to have Duke Energy as a neighbor and think they should always be our neighbor.
Robert Roberson — did not speak
Aaron Puryear
• Coal ash pollution problem for several years. Now water pollution problem for several years.
• Science is data manipulation from Duke Energy
• Duke not being held accountable.
Emma Greenbaum
• Sierra Club Beyond Coal Campaign
• People across N.C. have been drinking water contaminated with carcinogens; DEQ and Governor
should be moving heaven and earth to move these coal ash hazards. That has not happened.
• Roxboro is Duke's largest coal ash pit
• The coal ash sits beneath the groundwater table at both Mayo and Roxboro pits.
• No site should be classified as low risk
Armstrong Pillow
• South Person County
• Why Mayo and Roxboro coal ash sites must be thoroughly cleaned up.
Chris Hardin
• U.S. Congressional candidate from Guilford County
• Not from Person Co.
• Where did Duke data come from; federal government data can't be trusted. Not state
government data.
• If water's not safe, someone has a problem with the water in their well and they should have
their wells tested.
• Got to listen to the experts at the end of the day. Need to work with people on both sides of
aisle. Hard to believe there is a well water problem.
PJ Gentry
• Concerned resident
• Ridiculous to make a villain out of Duke Energy
• 1 want scientific evidence, not theory
• What is coal ash? It's bad. Who told you that?
• Arsenic, selenium, vanadium — where are they found? Found in rocks, selenium is in livestock,
feed
• Coal comes from the earth. These are minerals that come from the earth.
Ken Rose
• Chair of the headwaters group of the Sierra Club
• Needs to be a scientific process
• Scientists recommended high risk.
• Now it's low risk
• High risk in Charlotte, Asheville, Wilmington. But in poor rural areas the coal ash pits are
rated as low risk.