North Carolina's Department of Environmental Quality released draft proposed risk classifications Thursday for coal ash sites across the state. The preliminary list determines when coal ash sites across the state will close.
Amy Brown who lives near Allen Steam Station has been waiting for the state's preliminary closure timeline. When she saw it, she said she was disappointed.
"It just leaves us with even more questions," she said.
She and Catawba Riverkeeper Sam Perkins said the report didn't thoroughly explain when most of the coal ash sites in the Charlotte area will close.
"Marshall on Lake Norman and Allen on Lake Wylie were two that DEQ did not end up classifying at all which they had a deadline of Dec. 31 to do and they failed to do," Perkins said.
Leaders with DEQ said they didn't have enough information from Duke Energy to give Allen, Buck and Marshall sites a specific classification so they classified them with a range of low to intermediate.
State law says intermediate risk sites don't have to close until Dec. 2024, low risk in 2029 and high by 2019.
"I would say they have enough information. We know there are hundreds of people around those sites that are not able to drink their water and we know there are coal ash sites that sit on drinking water reservoirs. So there's a lot of risk here," Perkins said
To view Duke Energy's response to the DEQ report click here.
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