News-Record.com

From a story in Monday's paper:

RALEIGH — An effort to more tightly regulate material left over from burning coal to create power faces stiff opposition in the General Assembly, despite a massive December coal ash spill in Tennessee.

Coal ash can either be wet and stored in ponds or as a powder. Both forms can contain arsenic, lead, selenium and other toxic substances, researchers say.

“If the public understood the situation, they would scream for some regulations on this stuff,” said Rep. Pricey Harrison, a Greensboro Democrat who has introduced legislation that would more tightly control how coal ash is stored, disposed of or used in commercial applications.

In December, a Tennessee Valley Authority dam broke, releasing more than a billion gallons of toxic coal ash sludge into nearby communities and waterways.

Although none are as big as the TVA pond, Duke and Progress Energy have 14 coal ash ponds next to power plants throughout the state. They include Duke’s Dan River Steam Station in Eden and Belews Creek Steam Station in Stokes County.

Click here for the whole story.

Here's a map of where you can find coal ash ponds throughout the state (click for slightly bigger version):

So what does one of these things look like? Well, the WV Gazette "Coal Tattoo" blog has some good pictures of what happens when things get loose.

For a view of an in-tact ash pond, let's turn to the Google Earth image of Duke's Energy's Dan River Steam Station in Rockingham County:

View Larger Map

The baseball-diamond-shaped area that is dark black is the coal ash pond, with an estimated surface area of 8 acres. That, by the way, is one of the smaller ponds in the state.

Update: I'm told that the baseball diamond-shaped thing may be a stockpile and the coal ash pond is the thing to the right of the photograph that's kind of a dark, milky gray. And now that I look at it, that feature jibes better with the written description of the ponds as well as the size.

Basically, anywhere in the state where Duke or Progress Energy has a coal-fired plant, you have an ash pond.

Something that I wasn't able to map right off was all the places where coal ash has been used as fill. I found references to it being used in NC to help level road projects and parks. There has been some evidence this use can lead to icky things leaking into groundwater. More here.

Click here for info on H 1354, Rep. Harrison's bill that would regulate coal ash.