Duke Energy To Spend Whole $2 Million To Clean Up Ash-Clogged Dan River; $8 Million For Grants

[hatrack]

Some green pancake makeup, and cheap.



DANVILLE, Va. - The utility that polluted the Dan River with coal ash announced plans today to spend $2 million or more on efforts to improve its water "quality, quantity and conservation."

The new grant program for nonprofit groups and government agencies makes up part of Duke Energy's new, $10 million Water Resources Fund for water projects in North Carolina, South Carolina, southern Virginia, and parts of Georgia and Tennessee.

Duke Energy's president of North Carolina operations, Paul Newton, announced the fund today as part of the utility's atonement for the Feb. 2 coal-ash spill that affected parts of the river for as much as 70 miles downstream. The spill occurred at the retired Dan River Steam Station, on the outskirts of Eden, when a drainage pipe collapsed beneath a storage pond containing tons of ash -- the residue of coal burnt to make electricity at the now-closed plant at the river's edge.

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Newton said the $10 million fund includes $1.5 million specifically earmarked for nonprofit and government programs along the Dan. Duke also pledged another $500,000 to improve the Danville, municipal park where he made the announcement. The riverside Abreu-Grogan Park was closed for weeks while Duke cleanup crews used it as base of operations to remove about 2,500 tons of coal ash and sediment from the waters near Schoolfield Dam. The spill released as much as 39,000 tons of potentially harmful coal ash. But most was either buried in the river bottom in much smaller amounts or government regulators decided for other reasons that it was unsuitable for recovery.

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http://www.news-record.com/rockingham_now/duke-energy-plans-at-least-million-for-dan-river-recovery/article_52613710-43f9-11e4-b42e-001a4bcf6878.html

[marym625]

1. serious question

Isn't this too little much too late? Seems that amount from Duke energy is not much more than a publicity stunt.