Activists stage ‘die-in' protest ahead of meeting on Belmont's water safety

CHARLOTTE, N.C. — On the eve of a major community meeting in Belmont to address ongoing concerns about the safety of well water near a Duke Energy coal ash pond, environmental activists staged a dramatic protest.

Activists fell to the sidewalk outside Duke Energy’s Uptown Charlotte headquarters on Monday and pretended to die from drinking what they called "coal ash Kool-Aid."

"I’m very concerned about the impacted communities that are having to drink this water,” Nikola Taylor said.

The protest centered on new letters sent out by the North Carolina Department of Environmental Quality (DEQ), which tell residents that well water near the Allen Steam Station’s coal ash ponds is now safe to drink.

The state recommended last April that residents not drink the water because of concerns of dangerous chemicals, including hexavalent chromium, which has been linked to cancer. Since then, Duke Energy has been paying for and delivering bottled water to about 200 homeowners in Belmont.

Amy Brown’s house is filled with cases of water. She said she’s not sure what to believe.

“The risk is still the same. Nothing has changed. No one has come out to retest my water. Absolutely nothing has changed,” Brown said.

Dr. Randall Williams, North Carolina’s state health director, said things have changed.

He said that after a year of talking with experts, the federal government and other states, North Carolina officials now believe the levels of dangerous metals in well water in the Belmont area are acceptable.

Williams said the state was overly cautious in originally recommending residents not drink their well water. He said changing course is OK.

“I just reject categorically this idea that because you change your mind, that’s somehow incorrect,” Williams said.

He said new federal guidelines on safe levels of hexavalent chromium are due out at the end of the year, and North Carolina DENR will re-evaluate the data from Belmont after that.

But environmental groups said the state is wrong. Sam Perkins of the Catawba Riverkeeper group said independent analysis shows that levels of hexavalent chromium are tens to hundreds of times higher than the state’s own originally acceptable levels.

“It’s baffling that the state is not protecting its own citizens,” Perkins said.

Duke Energy, which is in the process of cleaning up coal ash ponds around the state after a disastrous coal ash leak into the Dan River in 2014, insists that whatever may be in the well water isn’t from its coal ash ponds.

• CLICK HERE for letter from Catawba Riverkeeper
• Public water supply data
• Well data

“These coal ash basins are not impacting these neighbors’ wells, and the water is as safe as the municipal supplies all across the country,” Duke spokeswoman Paige Sheehan said.

Monday’s protesters disagreed, saying that the state is making a mistake in reversing course on its "do not drink" recommendation.

Tom Reeder of North Carolina DEQ said he stands by the state’s decision.

“Everything I know about that indicates to me that the water is safe to drink. I would drink the water. I would let my family drink the water. I mean, it’s perfectly safe,” Reeder said.

None of that minimizes the ongoing controversy surrounding the coal ash issue.

“I’m not going to go back to freely using my water. I mean, how can you?” Brown said.

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