For everyone following the battle over coal-ash regulation, the Democratic National Convention could not have chosen a better location. Right now, every politician staying in the Charlotte area is drinking the same water that 1.5 million local citizens drink.
However, anyone arriving by helicopter might have lost their thirst! Right next to Mountain Island Lake — Charlotte’s drinking-water source — and the Catawba River are two high-hazard coal-ash ponds. If any coal ash leaks into these water systems, the city’s drinking water will turn into an arsenic and mercury milkshake. I wonder if Obama is drinking bottled water or not?
Asheville has two high-hazard coal-ash ponds as well, both of which are leaking toxins into the groundwater and threatening the French Broad River. Want to clean up our toxic coal-ash problem? Anyone can help out by contacting senators Kay Hagan and Richard Burr and telling them to vote against S-3512 (Coal Ash Recycling and Oversight Act of 2012) or any other bill that would prohibit the Environmental Protection Agency from protecting North Carolinians — and all Americans — from toxic coal ash.
— Charles Wright
Asheville
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