Last year North Carolina’s Department of Environmental and Natural Resources tested hundreds of wells near Duke Energy coal ash pits. In many cases, the agency found what they labeled as unsafe levels of the manmade carcinogen hexavalent chromium, made famous by Erin Brockovich. Mountain Xpress reported on two such wells near the Arden coal plant last June. The owners of some wells with certain levels of toxins, in various parts of the state received “do not drink” letters from the N.C. DENR. Last week, a letter signed by the state health director and the assistant state secretary for the environment, reversed the warnings.
Yesterday the Winston-Salem Journal reported that their “review of emails from staff members within the N.C. Department of Health and Human Services and Department of Environmental Quality, as well as interviews with environmental experts and sources close to state health staff suggest that administrators at DHHS and DEQ are overriding their own experts as they try to explain why they are lifting some of the do-not-drink warnings.”
Read more on the process that is confusing residents at risk here.
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