coal ash contamination – Meanderthals

NC Toxicologist: Water Near Duke’s Dumps Not Safe to Drink

Jeff — Wed, 03 Aug 2016 11:10:16 +0000

North Carolina’s top public health official acted unethically and possibly illegally by telling residents living near Duke Energy coal ash pits that their well water is safe to drink when it’s contaminated with a chemical known to cause cancer, a state toxicologist said in sworn testimony.

The Associated Press obtained a full copy of the 220-page deposition given last month by toxicologist Ken Rudo as part of a lawsuit. The nation’s largest electricity company has asked a federal judge to seal the record, claiming its public disclosure would potentially prejudice jurors.

Rudo’s boss, state public health director Dr. Randall Williams, in March 2016 reversed earlier warnings that had told the affected residents not to drink their water. The water is contaminated with cancer-causing hexavalent chromium at levels many times higher than Rudo had determined is safe.

“The state health director’s job is to protect public health,” testified Rudo, who has been the state’s toxicologist for nearly 30 years. “And in this specific instance, the opposite occurred. He knowingly told people that their water was safe when we knew it wasn’t.”

As part of his deposition, Rudo said hexavalent chromium would cause an increased lifetime risk of causing tumors in those who drink it, especially for pregnant women, infants and children under age of 12.

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Well owners in disbelief about NC’s decision to lift tainted water warning

Jeff — Tue, 22 Mar 2016 06:18:28 +0000

Hundreds of well owners near Duke Energy coal ash pits received letters last spring from state health officials warning them not to drink their own well water. Last week, a letter signed by Randall Williams, the state health director, and Tom Reeder, the assistant state secretary for the environment, lifted the warning.

Now, well owners such as Bonita Queen, Deborah Graham and Gail Johnston, who live near coal ash pits, say they don’t know what to believe. Their wells still contain hexavalent chromium, a man-made carcinogen.

“Nothing has changed,” said Queen, a Salisbury resident who lives near Duke’s Buck power plant. “There has not been any proof showing what has changed from it being not safe to drink 10 months ago to it being safe to drink now.” “The coal ash pond is still there. “My well is still here. “Tell me what has changed — just numbers on a piece of paper,” Queen said.

A Winston-Salem Journal 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.

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