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McCrory says information indicates water is safe to drink near coal ash ponds

BLOWING ROCK, N.C. — Gov. Pat McCrory was at an event in Blowing Rock on Friday and shrugged off charges by top state scientists that the governor’s office and legislators pressured them to lie and tell residents living near coal ash ponds that their water was safe to drink when it wasn't.

"Are you saying that didn't happen?" reporter Ken Lemon asked McCrory.

"No, no,” McCrory said. “We are doing the right thing. We are providing the scientific information that needed. All the information, not partial information."

Several residents near Duke Energy plants were told their wells had high levels of heavy metals.

A state epidemiologist resigned and told WSOC-TV that leaders in the Department of Public Health didn't listen to their scientists and didn't serve the people of North Carolina.

McCrory said other scientists indicate the water is safe to drink and that is the information he is telling the public.

"It shouldn't be censored by any one scientist," McCrory said.
 
In a deposition, a state toxicologist said the health director acted unethically after getting pressure from the governor's office.
 
Lemon asked McCrory about the state toxicologist's claim.

"I think I have answered your questions," McCrory said.
 
McCrory's press aide said he answered questions in an interview in another part of the state earlier in the week.
 
That wasn't good enough for Debra Baker.
 
She can stand in her front yard and see coal ash ponds from the Allen Steam Plant in Belmont.
 
"Gov. McCrory still will not answer any of our questions," Baker said.
 
She and her neighbors have used bottled water for the past 16 months.
 
She said she always suspected that state health officials were pressured into telling them their well water was safe to drink.

"I do not have a lot of trust for Gov. McCrory," Baker said.