Meeting sets stage to fight coal ash issue
By John Joyce
Published in News on March 31, 2015 1:46 PM
Goldsboro resident Michael Carroway wants his neighbors to know what they are drinking.
Coal ash from a local energy plant is finding its way into the area drinking water supply and it is making people sick, he said.
More than 20 people joined Carroway at The Greenleaf Christian Church on North William Street Monday to learn more about the pollutants in their water. Also in attendance were Goldsboro City Councilman William Goodman and Wayne County Commissioner Wayne Aycock
Four short films detailing the cause and effects of coal ash pollution were followed by key experts and then Carroway himself.
He said there is arsenic in the surface and ground water of the Neuse and Little rivers, seeping out from the coal ash ponds of Duke Energy's H.F. Lee plant right here in Goldsboro.
And that is not all.
There are other chemicals, too, and each of them more toxic than the last.
Upper Neuse Riverkeeper Matthew Starr supported Carroway's claims.
"We have a problem right here," he said. Starr showed slides taken while paddling along the Neuse River, showing orange sludge trickling from the banks into the river.
"When the river is high, it is a trickle. When the water is lower, it flows," he said.
The seep is a mixture of arsenic, chromium, selenium, boron, lead and mercury -- the waste byproduct of coal burning energy plants that turns to ash and is dumped in cooling ponds and then buried -- all of which is carcinogenic, Starr said.
Starr suggested residents who live along the coal ash ponds, specifically in the Old Smithfield Road area, call the city, the county, the state or private agencies and get their water tested.
"I would. As often as I could afford to," he said.
He said the H.F. Lee Brown plant has the highest arsenic levels of any ash pond in the state, more than 60 percent higher than the level allowed by law.
"There are no federal protections, no legal protections," he said.
His office has a lawsuit pending against Duke Energy to compel the corporation to clean up the coal ash in the Brown facility's ash ponds. Time will tell if those filings will be successful.
Carroway called for action, too, asking residents to sign a petition and to start calling their elected officials at the city, county, district and state levels, to effect change.
Goodman vowed to fight and to support local citizens in their desire to clean up the drinking water. He said he would move to get the local treatment plant to publish its test results.
"Our water is tested and treated several times a day. I will work to get these test results published on the city's website," he said.
Aycock said he and his fellow commissioners have and will continue to talk to state representatives about the coal ash issue.
"Sen. (Louis) Pate and Sen. (Don) Davis work together on issues like this. Our representatives listen to us. Whether they will do anything, I don't know," he said.
Carroway said he has no political aspirations of his own. He said he came forward only as a concerned citizen.
"I couldn't just sit by," he said.
A second meeting to discuss the hazards of coal ash deposits in Wayne County's drinking water will be held April 21 at Tehillah Church, 1700 Beech St., in Goldsboro. The meeting will be open to the public.