Duke energy on the griddle about coal ash in the Dan River from an electricity plant.
Coal ash is not a toxic thing. Even though it is from evil coal.
http://www.newsobserver.com/2014/02/17/3630919/nc-lawmakers-get-update-on-duke.html
This coal ash lagoon is on the site of an old coal plant, now fired with natural gas. A pipe collapsed under the lagoon and the spill went into the Dan River in Northern North Carolina at Eden.
Naturally the enviro lawyers were there with anxious looks on their faces.
True, but I don’t know of anywhere in the US where people’s drinking water is piped unfiltered from the surface of lakes or ponds. Industry should take care not to pollute, but the reaction to inevitable accidents should be commensurate to the severity of the pollutant. In reality, people drink a lot worse without ever knowing it. “Pure” water is a relatively recent marketing concept created to sell bottled water. If this incident was unpublicized, I doubt anyone would ever be able to tell from their drinking water even if they sent it to a lab for analysis.
Well, ashes in water still aren’t something one wants to drink…
Doesn’t it depend upon the type of coal it originates from and what hasn’t been rendered harmless in the process.
Coal isn’t just pure fuel, made under exacting processes.