Energy Company Dumps 61M Gallons of Tοxins In Drinking Water

Reported by: Dr. Samori Swygert

A few days ago, Your Black World published an article I wrote about the environmental crisis involving Duke Energy (the nation’s largest electricity plant) in North Carolina. The article detailed how 82,000 tons of “coal ash” had spilled into the Dan River in North Carolina. The components of coal ash contain lead, arsenic, and mercury.

Well, a very important update to the story was aired last night on MSNBC during the Rachel Maddow show.

Maddow revealed that the company has pumped 61 MILLION GALLONS of contamination from the spill into a tributary that feeds directly into the Cape Fear River in North Carolina. The problem is that the Cape Fear River supplies drinking water for parts of North Carolina.

Duke Energy tried to downplay what they were doing by telling the state Division of Water Resources that they were just conducting “routine maintenance.” However, a watchdog group (The Waterkeeper Alliance) conducted an aerial surveillance that revealed the illegal and hazardous pumping into the tributary.

According to the LA Times, “Regulators said they were taking water samples at sites on the Cape Fear River, which runs through Fayetteville on its way to the coast near Wilmington, North Carolina”. The pumping of the contaminants took place in Central North Carolina.

The company has been cited by the state agency and stands to face fines of $25,000 a day for each violation. However, the article in the LA Times noted that the director of the state agency that is regulating the spill …………was a Duke Energy employee for 28 years. This may represent a conflict of interest. I won’t go further into speculation without proof, but this doesn’t smell right.

Source: LA Times

This is why I posted the original article because everything got so quiet about the story. How do you remain quiet about 82,000 tons of this tοxic waste? I cringe at the thought of what could have been the ultimate result had it not have been for the bold, courageous, and inquisitive nature of this watchdog group to fly over the contamination site and reveal their findings.

These companies are playing with our lives, and there’s nothing funny, humorous, or comical about this at all. This demonstrates that their only concern is the dollar. They have no morals, virtues, standards, ethics or regard for humanity and the environment we live in. They should be brought up on charges. What could have been the long term implications of this? If this had proceeded unchecked, we could have seen unexplainable rates of birth defects, neurocognitive abnormalities, cancers, and an assortment of other physiological effects on us, our babies, and wildlife.

Keep in mind that Duke was warned about this by the EPA in 2009.