By MITCH WEISS and MICHAEL BIESECKER
February 22, 2014
Flemington Road community member Sam Malpass of Wilmington, N.C. holds a glass of water from his home on Wednesday, Feb. 19, 2014. Malpass and his wife Pat are part of a small community near L.V. Sutton Complex operated by Duke Energy they feel could be polluting well water with spill off and seepage from large coal ash ponds. “If you want to know what it’s like living near a coal ash pond, this is it,” said Malpass, 67, a retired carpenter and Vietnam veteran. “We’re afraid to drink the water because we don’t know what’s in it. We can’t eat the fish because we don’t know if it’s safe anymore. It’s changed our lives out here.” (AP Photo/Randall Hill)
WILMINGTON, N.C. (AP) — From his modest home near the Cape Fear River, Sam Malpass can glimpse the tall stacks of Duke Energy’s Sutton Steam Electric Plant, a looming reminder of the environmental dangers threatening his family.
Contaminated groundwater from a pair of huge Sutton coal-ash dumps is headed toward the wells that provide drinking water for Flemington, a largely working class community a half mile from the entrance to Duke’s plant. Duke says the wells are safe. But the threat is so serious that the company has agreed to pay to extend pipes to connect residents to a public water system.
Despite the danger, the government regulators responsible for protecting the state’s natural resources have not taken action to force Duke to stop the spread of the underground plume of pollution encroaching closer to their homes each year.
According to a recent study, toxic chemicals leaking from Duke’s coal-ash dumps at Sutton have triggered genetic mutations in fish living in nearby Sutton Lake. Duke disputes that conclusion.
Meanwhile, 3 ½ years ago, part of a big dike at Sutton collapsed, spilling toxic ash down the embankment.
“If you want to know what it’s like living near a coal ash pond, this is it,” said Malpass, 67, a retired carpenter and Vietnam veteran. “We’re afraid to drink the water because we don’t know what’s in it. We can’t eat the fish because we don’t know if it’s safe anymore. It’s changed our lives out here.”
In the wake of Duke Energy’s massive coal ash spill in Eden, people in the tight-knit Flemington community are paying close attention to the environmental disaster unfolding 200 miles to the northwest along the Dan River.
A generation of families raised their children in Flemington, an area outside Wilmington of mostly one-story homes that hug the narrow pine-shaded roads sprinkled with sand.
Many of the 400 people who live here say they’d like to stay. But it’s getting harder — especially when they live in the shadow of Duke’s coal-ash dumps.
Like many in this community, Kenneth Sandlin worries about a coal-ash accident that could spill tons of toxic waste into Sutton Lake. He worries what happened in Eden could happen here, too.
“I don’t know how much more we can take,” said Sandlin, who has lived in Flemington since 1957. “If it could happen there, it could happen here.”