Some things I learned about the Coal Ash spill…

The EPA hosted an open house at Danville’s Community Market on Monday afternoon with a lot of state and federal agencies talking about the coal ash spill and the cleanup efforts. SouthsideCentral was there talking and asking questions. Let’s take a look at some of the interesting things that I found out…

Before we start, I want to say that this presentation was exactly what was needed in the continuing effort to get the truth out. There was no environmentalist hysteria anywhere around, just people willing to talk and answer questions. Here’s some random interesting things that I found out…

• Danville’s water treatment plant only runs 12 to 14 hours a day.
• During the crisis when VA certified labs were overwhelmed by the number of testing samples requested, Danville actually took samples to a Reidsville NC lab for a quick turnaround just to have even more confidence.
• Water testing is done every hour at the Danville water treatment plant as standard operating procedure.
• It takes around six years to be certified as a Class 1 Water Treatment Plant Operator by the state.
• Danville’s water plant can be completely shut down in around 4 minutes.
• The US Coast Guard has a one-boat presence at the coal ash clean up spot above the dam for safety and any assistance needed.
• There has been no abnormal turtle kill found due to the coal ash.
• The dead mollusks that were found along the river turned out to be a normal occurrence of Asian Clams that reproduce to excess with the vast majority of them dying quickly.

Yeah, Duke Energy did things quite sleazy. They took advantage of lax regulatory procedures to get by with as much as they could. They’re going to pay for that attitude now.

The short-term environmental impacts are now gone. The water quality is as good as it’s ever been. It looks like all the environmental hysteria turned out to be just environmental hysteria.