VA Gov. Northam's Plan To Excavate & Deal W. Coal Ash Puts More Pressure On His NC Counterpart

Virginia Gov. Ralph Northam’s new move to excavate ash from the commonwealth’s coal ash ponds puts more pressure on North Carolina Gov. Roy Cooper to follow suit, environmental advocates say. The bipartisan agreement unveiled Thursday requires Dominion Energy to dig up its ash dumps, recycle at least a quarter of the ash, and store the rest in dry, lined landfills — the solution for the toxic waste long sought by environmental and public health experts.

The announcement comes just a week before the anniversary of the 2014 Dan River spill, when a Duke Energy coal ash pond in Eden, North Carolina, failed, sending 39,000 tons of ash into the river as it flowed north to Virginia.

The bill, which impacts ash dumps along rivers that flow into the Chesapeake Bay, still needs to pass the Virginia Legislature. But it has backing from Northam, a Democrat; House of Delegates Speaker Kirk Cox, a Republican; and even Dominion itself, which until yesterday had fought against excavation as unworkable and expensive.

If the measure becomes law, Virginia will join South Carolina in requiring the excavation of all major coal ash dumps, according to the Southern Environmental Law Center, leaving North Carolina last in the three-state region to comprehensively address coal ash.

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https://energynews.us/2019/01/25/southeast/advocates-virginia-coal-ash-deal-puts-more-pressure-on-north-carolina/