The devil is in the details. As I read articles on the flooding in North Carolina, it reminds me of my field job in Eden, N.C. — six weeks repairing and doing maintenance on a boiler.
One weekend, four of us explored going fishing. We piled in to the company truck, drove about four miles out of town and walked down to the Dan River. Every 20 to 50 feet was a sign posted — do not touch or pick up rocks or dirt; wash hands and clothes if coming in contact; do not ingest — possible cancer-causing, etc. It seems a coal ash pond had failed in 2014, contaminating the river and its banks. We, in Washington, may glance over the few paragraphs, but to the people in Eden, another batch of signs go up along with their electric bills (Duke Energy passes the cleanup costs to its customers).
When it leaves whole areas of the state a wasteland, the solution to pollution is not dilution. I read that two more ponds are failing, bringing the total to five for one company in the last decade. Let’s be sure to keep this type of issue to a minimum in our state.
