Up and Coming Weekly is a weekly publication in Fayetteville, NC and Fort Bragg, NC area offering local news, views, arts, entertainment and community event and business information.
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FEB. 26 - MARCH 4, 2014 UCW 7 WWW.UPANDCOMINGWEEKLY.COM PITT DICKEY, Attorney, Contribut - ing Writer . COMMENTS? Editor@ upandcomingweekly.com. Right now you are probably asking yourself, how can I get more arsenic, lead, mercury and heavy metal cooties into my body? If you are a fan of flotsam, coal ash water is right for you. Ponder Duke's coal ash in the Dan River. Duke Energy managed to have a giant wad of coal ash gush into the Dan River at its Eden, N.C. plant. Estimates say about 82,000 tons of coal ash went into the river. That is enough ash to fill up 73 Olympic size swimming pools or one half of Donald Trump's ego. North Carolina's leak wins the Bronze Medal for coal ash spills in U.S. history as third biggest spill ever. Huzzah! Only two spots away from the Gold Medal of coal ash pollution. Duke has a problem with coal ash leaking from its plants into North Carolina rivers. Before the Eden leak, coal ash wandered from Duke's Asheville and Charlotte coal dumps into local rivers. Naturally, some sore head environmental groups got excited over these spills and filed law suits. Some people have no sense of humor or adventure. Fortunately for Duke, it has friends in high places who can protect it from environmental wackos and their frivolous law suits. This is North Carolina, so think about basketball to visualize Duke's prior coal ash spills. There is a basketball play called a screen, wherein the team with the ball has one of its players stand in a spot. Another team mate with the ball uses the standing player as an obstacle to block off a defender and get off an undefended shot behind the screen. Think of Duke as the player with the ball. Think of the ball as a coal ash spill. Think of the N.C. Department of Environment and Natural Resources in a dual role as both the screening player and the referee for Duke Energy. Think of the environmental groups as the frustrated blocked out defenders. That is what happened in North Carolina. After Duke had its problems with the two prior coal ash spills, the environmental groups filed law suits under the federal Clean Water Act to chastise Duke for polluting the rivers. Not so fast, says the State's DENR. The State intervened in the environmental groups' law suits as it was entitled to do under the Clean Water Act. This move prevented the environmental groups from controlling their law suit. This is called setting up the screen on a basketball court. The enviro's end up being blocked out from pursuing Duke. The State then entered into a settlement proposal with Duke to fine Duke $99,000 for the two spills with an agreement from Duke to study how to stop future leaks. Duke was not required to clean up its mess, just study how not to do it again. Duke is a $50 billion dollar company. How badly does a $99,000 fine sting a $50 billion company? Can you say flea bite? Are you beginning to smell a polluted water rat? Who was the DENR protecting in its proposed $99,000 settlement? The rivers or Duke? DENR put on its Officer Barbrady from South Park hat and told North Carolina, "Nothing to see here. Move along." The fact that N.C. Governor McCrory worked for Duke for 28 years and Duke contributed a million bucks to help his campaigns certainly would have no effect on DENR's decision on how to resolve the coal ash dumps, would it? Of course not. Like a river full of coal ash, the plot thickens. After the Dan River spew, DENR asked the judge hearing its case against Duke for the Asheville and Charlotte messes to withdraw its proposed settlement with Duke. DENR may have suspected its gentle settlement was a tad too pungent to pass the smell test after Duke's Bronze Medal coal spew into the Dan River. A new player has entered the coal ash basketball court. The U.S. Attorney's office is now in the game. The Feds have opened a criminal probe into the prior spill settlements and is summoning Duke Energy and DENR to discuss their settlement negotiations before a federal Grand Jury. A small coal ash-colored cloud only the size of a man's hand has appeared on the horizon and is now hovering over DENR. The litigation is likely to go on for many years. In the meantime N.C. should make lemonade out of coal ash water. We can now offer three types of ice tea — sweetened, unsweetened and coal infused. Drink up! Coal Ash Is the New Basketball by PITT DICKEY Duke has a problem with coal ash leaking from its plants into North Carolina rivers. D i n n e r * D a n c i n g * R a f f l e I t e m s B i g B a n d E n t e r t a i n m e n t b y O r c h e s t r a C a s a b l a n c a Saturday, March 8, 2014 Embassy Suites, Fayetteville/Ft. Bragg Tickets and event information available online at www.ccpfc.org or call (910) 867-9700. To Benefit the Partnership for Children Tickets $100 The Roaring Twenties