Contaminated Florence storm waters pose 'dire' threat, environmental group warns
A very disturbing report on PBS NewsHOur How the government there neglected, of course to monitor the powerful energy companies
https://www.pbs.org/newshour/show/contaminated-florence-storm-waters-pose-dire-threat-environmental-group-warns
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But the heavy flooding has environmentalists worried about other Duke Energy coal ash sites. And there are other hazards. The flooding breached dams at more than 40 lagoons on hog farms, spilling pig waste into the floodwaters. Also in those waters, the carcasses of millions of chickens, turkeys, hogs and wild animals killed in the storm.
Will Hendrick is a staff attorney for the Waterkeeper Alliance. It's an advocacy group that's been conducting aerial surveys in the Carolinas to identify contaminated sites after her Florence hit. He joins me now via Skype from Chapel Hill, North Carolina.
Will Hendrick:
Well, it's dire.
And it's a significant threat. And, sadly, I think it is one that will continue to increase as floodwaters continue to rise. There are a number of sources of pollution, some of which you alluded to in your introduction.
We are monitoring them closely. We are conducting both aerial monitoring and ground patrols and water quality sampling efforts to better understand that public health threat. Sadly, it is a threat that is exacerbated by decisions made by powerful industries with respect to their waste management.
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And, as recently as two years ago, we saw in Hurricane Matthew what floodwaters could do, what hurricanes could cause in terms of breaches, in terms of inundation, and in terms of releases of contaminants that, based on past experience, our leaders and our industries in this state should have acknowledged and should have mitigated by removing that imminent threat from our floodplains.
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Well, coal ash and swine waste and poultry waste should, for starters, not be stored in our 100-year floodplain.
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