Duke Energy, state continue to wrangle over coal ash cleanup

RALEIGH — Duke Energy is asking the state court system to overturn a recent administrative ruling that sided with government regulators in a dispute over coal-ash cleanup at the Belews Creek Steam Station and five other North Carolina power plants.

The Charlotte-based utility asked the Superior Court of Mecklenburg County this week to scrap a decision by the state Office of Administrative Hearings that upheld regulators' authority to make Duke Energy dig up all coal ash at Belews Creek, near Walnut Cove, and the other plants for reburial in lined landfills.

Duke Energy wants to consider leaving some or all of the coal ash in its current resting places at the six plants, then cover the discarded waste with impenetrable caps that it says provide the same or similar margins of safety as a landfill.

Duke Energy contends that "capping in place" is several times less costly than excavation and landfill disposal, while also avoiding air pollution from heavy trucks carrying the waste to its final destination.

Read more: https://www.greensboro.com/news/state/outer-banks-only-highway-closes-as-ocean-threatens-to-wash/article_86622302-32ee-53c8-87aa-dfb1be12a56c.html