On Sunday, Feb. 2, a stormwater pipe burst beneath a coal ash impoundment at Duke Energy’s retired Dan River Power Station near Eden. Duke Energy estimates that between 50,000 to 82,000 tons of coal ash and up to 27 million gallons of wastewater have run into the Dan River as of Feb. 4.
That amount of ash is enough to fill 20-32 Olympic-sized swimming pools, for comparison the Kingston, Tenn., TVA disaster dumped more than 1 billion gallons of ash into the Clinch and Emory rivers.
This page contains links to news articles, pictures, press releases, videos and other information concerning the Dan River disaster. If you have materials to add, please email them to joan@cleanenergy.org.
“Climate Disruption is not a political issue, it’s a moral issue.” – WNCA’s campaign coordinator Anna Jane Joyner, as featured in the Years of Living Dangerously trailer .
The new Showtime docu-series, “Years of Living Dangerously,” is set to premiere on April 13. Filming took place at Duke Energy’s Asheville coal plant and the Asheville Beyond Coal rally. Also, watch for conversations with Ian Somerhalder (“Lost,” “Vampire Diaries”), Western North Carolina Alliance Organizer Anna Jane Joyner, and Beyond Coal Director Mary Anne Hitt.
We’ll keep you posted on further details as the premier approaches.
The Western North Carolina Alliance, North Carolina Interfaith Power and Light, Southwings, Riverkeeper, and the Sierra Club are the proud founding members of the Asheville Beyond Coal coalition.
We seek to:
- Lead a transition from the use of fossil fuel energy to a reliance on clean, safe and renewable energy sources
- Make energy conservation and efficiency a priority in reducing energy demand in Western North Carolina
- Replace jobs dependent on fossil fuels with jobs centered on conservation, efficiency and renewable energy technologies.
- Secure retirement of the Asheville coal plant and clean-up of any legacy pollution, including the coal ash lagoons.
