Toxic brew
Growing storm threats include flooding coalash ponds and lagoons of pig manure
Hurricane Florence’s potential for destruction includes increased risks for the environment and public health as torrential rains could overwhelm the pits where toxic waste from power plants is stored. Animalmanure lagoons also are at risk of flooding.
Duke Energy was ordered two years ago to clean up coalash ponds in North Carolina that posed risks to the environment and public health. The company won’t be done in time for the storm, leaving the sites vulnerable to spills that can unleash the waste. The state also is a major producer of poultry and hogs, and manmade lagoons that hold manure also could be at risk of overflowing into fields and nearby waterways.
Florence continues to grow in size and strength, now poised to become the strongest hurricane in almost 30 years to hit the Carolinas as more than 1 million
people began fleeing the U.S. coastline.
Duke came under pressure to address coalash storage after about 39,000 tons spilled in 2014 from a pond near Eden, N.C. In 2016, the state gave the company until Aug. 1, 2019, to dig up and close some coalash pits and almost a decade more to deal with others. Duke has begun work at several highrisk sites.
Coalash sites
“The coalash sites are very vulnerable to this hurricane and any other,” said Frank Holleman, senior attorney at the Southern Environmental Law Center.
Duke owns 31 coalash basins in North Carolina. They contained about 111 million tons of coal ash as of August 2017, according to state estimates.
Duke is moving staff members and equipment toward North Carolina’s coast to monitor the disposal sites for coal ash, a byproduct of burning coal to generate electricity.
It contains metals including arsenic, chromium and mercury that pose risks to public health and the environment if spilled into drinking water supplies. After the storm hits, staff members are prepared to inspect the sites by foot, boat and drone.
Five sites slated for closing that are closest to the coast have lower water levels and “can hold significant rainfall,” Erin Culbert, a spokesperson, said in an email.
Still, many coalash storage ponds are near rivers that are vulnerable to overflowing during big storms.
“The risk is probably not that rain is going to fall into the pits,” Holleman said. “The risk is that land and water will compromise the dams.”
Manure lagoons
From the livestock industry, one environmental impact from the storm could be from the lagoons, or lined earthen pits, that hold treated manure. They are commonly used to manage swine waste. The waste is held in lagoons because it’s generally considered a safe way to store the manure before it’s used to aid crops.
“There’s just certain times of year when you just don’t want to put waste on fields,” said Mike Yoder, an associate director and coordinator for emergencyresponse programs at North Carolina State University Extension.
The waste can be a significant problem when there’s storm surge and heavy rain, as a lot of North Carolina’s hog production is close to the coast, according to Will Sawyer, an Atlantabased economist at CoBank. Farmers will be using the next several days to pre pare for the storm, he said.
There’s the potential that spillover from open lagoons or wash away from barns or fields could get into water used for drinking or recreation, according to the Waterkeeper Alliance, an environmental group.
Wet waste
More than 10 billion pounds of wet animal waste is produced annually in the state, according to a June 2016 report by the group, which has monitored the impact of past storms. North Carolina is the top U.S. turkey producer, ranks third for chicken and is home to more hogs than any state other than Iowa, government data show.
“This increasingly severe, potentially unprecedented storm is hurdling to the epicenter of animal agriculture in North Carolina,” said Will Hendrick, a staff attorney and manager for a water campaign in the state for the Waterkeeper Alliance.