CHARLOTTE, N.C. -- Duke Energy continues to monitor a developing situation at one of their natural gas plants hit hard by Hurricane Florence.

 

 

 As flooding continues along the eastern North Carolina, the Department says Sutton Lake, northwest of Wilmington, is both spilling into the Cape Fear River and a Duke Energy transmission yard.

Due to the overflow, it is now possible water flowing in the Cape Fear River is contaminated. 

Gray material that the company characterized as lightweight coal combustion byproducts could be seen Friday floating on the top of the lake.

The ash left over when coal is burned to generate electricity coal ash contains an array of components, including mercury, lead, arsenic and other toxic heavy metals. The inundated basin contains at the plant 400,000 cubic yards of ash.

“Since Sunday, there has been more flooding onto our plant site and so the water is both going onto our property, as well off through our cooling lake and so that amount may have changed since previous reports, but again, we continue to monitor the situation. We have to make sure that it's safe for our crews to actually go out and do those inspections. So, you don't know yet. At this point, no we don't know the specific amount,” Duke Energy spokesperson Catherine Butler said.

The current incident is separate from the rupture at a nearby coal ash landfill reported at the site last weekend, spilling enough material to fill 180 dump trucks. The site received more than 30 inches (75 centimeters) of rain from former Hurricane Florence, with the Cape Fear River expected to crest Saturday.

Duke's ash waste management has faced intense scrutiny since a drainage pipe collapsed under a waste pit at an old plant in Eden in 2014, triggering a massive spill that coated 70 miles (110 kilometers) of the Dan River in gray sludge. The utility later agreed to plead guilty to nine Clean Water Act violations and pay $102 million in fines and restitution for illegally discharging pollution from ash dumps at five North Carolina power plants. It plans to close all its ash dumps by 2029.