MSNBC’s Rachel Maddow highlighted an Asheville coal power plant owned by Duke Energy in a segment of her show on Monday, Feb. 10, about the coal ash spill in Dan River.
The piece began by mentioning Asheville environmental groups looking into the plant in 2013 for the large amounts of coal ash stored at the site in one active and one inactive pond — which, together, total about 91 acres. Maddow referred to a lawsuit filed by the groups in order to protect the surrounding groundwater from contamination. Under the Federal Water Pollution Control Act, citizens are legally able to file suits for alleged violations. However, the act also requires the citizen plaintiffs to send a 60-day intent-to-file-suit to state regulators. Fifty-eight days after the citizens notified the state of their intent to sue Duke Energy, state regulators stepped in and took action on their own.
Maddow went on to describe similar instances in which North Carolina regulators removed citizen environmental groups from the process of challenging Duke Energy following the situation in Asheville. She then finished the segment by connecting all of these events to the recent massive contamination of Dan River – the third largest coal ash spill in U.S. history.
The full video is available at http://www.msnbc.com/rachel-maddow-show/watch/warnings-ignored-ahead-of-toxic-nc-spill-146553923542.
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