Quaker Neck Dam
The low-head Quaker Neck Dam was built in 1952 at Neuse River kilometer 225 to impound cooling water for the steam electric plant. A fish ladder was included. The Dam was 7 feet (2.1 m) high and 260 feet (79 m) long. The dam rose only about 1 metre (3 ft 3 in) above the water during average flow conditions, and was completely submerged in high flow periods. Some studies found that the dam had little impact on fish, which had no difficulty in using the ladder or in crossing the dam in high water periods. Most studies found that only a few fish were able to pass the dam. The dam was classified as a barrier to fish in 1989 by the United States Fish and Wildlife Service. There were delays while the Carolina Power & Light Company looked for an alternative source of cooling water. An alternative was developed between 1993 and 1996, and it was agreed to remove the dam.
Deconstruction was undertaken between December 1997 and August 1998. Bruce Babbitt, Secretary of the Interior, swung a sledgehammer to symbolically start removal of the Menominee, Quaker Neck & Cherry Hospital Dams. The Quaker Neck Dam was removed in May 1998. The work cost $222,000. The result was to restore access for anadromous fish to about 78 miles (126 km) of the Neuse River and 925 miles (1,489 km) of tributary streams. Anadromous fish mainly live in saltwater, but return to freshwater to spawn, and include alewife (Alosapseudoharengus), blueback herring (Alosa aestivalis), striped bass (Morone saxatilis) and American shad (Alosa sapidissima). [17] The Cherry Hospital Dam was also removed, which restored another 76 miles (122 km) of streams for use by anadromous fish in Little River, a Neuse tributary. [17]
In a 1999 study American shad were equipped with transmitters so their movement could be observed. Of 11 American shad whose transmitters provided useful data, 9 migrated upstream past the former dam site, but all halted within 16 river kilometers of the former dam, long before reaching the next obstacle. However, a comparison of data collected in the 1970s and in 2003–04 show that American shad, hickory shad and striped bass spawning distribution expanded considerably after the dam was removed.
Ash basins
There are four coal-ash basins at the H.F. Lee Steam Plant. An active ash pond enclosed in a dyke lies opposite Quaker Neck Lake to the north of the river. There are three inactive ash basins to the west of the river further upstream. These are forested, do not impound water and are normally dry. The basins hold coal ash in a layer 4 to 10 feet (1.2 to 3.0 m) thick over an area of 170 acres (69 ha). A Duke Energy site assessment in 2015 reported that the basins had high levels of toxic heavy metals such as arsenic, antimony and thallium.
The flooded river in October 2016 flowed over the three inactive ash basins. The company said there was no risk of significant release of material from these basins, and the active ash pond was not affected by the flooding. However, in October 2016 Waterkeeper Alliance and Sound Rivers reported a large coal ash spill from at least one of the inactive basins. The basins had been underwater for over a week. One observer said "This spill is easily visible to anyone in a boat. The area looks like a winter wonderland of toxic coal ash as it has coated the water and trees." According to the Southern Alliance for Clean Energy, the spill was "yet another tragic example of why coal ash must be excavated from pits near waterways and stored in lined, dry impoundments away from rivers and well above the water table, as soon as possible."
In December 2016 Duke Energy said that in compliance with the Coal Ash Management Act the company would recycle ash from the ponds for use in manufacturing concrete, aiming to excavate all the material by 2028. Any ash that could not be recycled would be buried at a lined landfill. Originally the company had planned to move the six million tons of coal ash to a landfill in Lee County. Duke Energy was now going to invest in technology to remove excess carbon to make the ash more suitable for concrete.
The Lower Colorado River Authority (LCRA) is a nonprofit public utility created in November 1934 by the Texas Legislature. LCRA's mission is to enhance the lives of the Texans it serves through water stewardship, energy and community service. LCRA provides public power, manages the lower Colorado River, builds and operates transmission lines, owns public parks, and offers community services.
Goldsboro, originally Goldsborough, is a city and the county seat of Wayne County, North Carolina, United States. The population was 33,657 at the 2020 census. It is the principal city of and is included in the Goldsboro, North Carolina Metropolitan Statistical Area. The nearby town of Waynesboro was founded in 1787, and Goldsboro was incorporated in 1847. It is the county seat of Wayne County.
The Cape Fear River is a 191.08-mile-long blackwater river in east-central North Carolina. It flows into the Atlantic Ocean near Cape Fear, from which it takes its name. The river is formed at the confluence of the Haw River and the Deep River in the town of Moncure, North Carolina. Its river basin is the largest in the state: 9,149 sq mi.
The Neuse River is a river rising in the Piedmont of North Carolina and emptying into Pamlico Sound below New Bern. Its total length is approximately 275 miles (443 km), making it the longest river entirely contained in North Carolina. The Trent River joins the Neuse at New Bern. Its drainage basin, measuring 5,630 square miles (14,600 km2) in area, also lies entirely inside North Carolina. It is formed by the confluence of the Flat and Eno rivers prior to entering the Falls Lake reservoir in northern Wake County. Its fall line shoals, known as the Falls of the Neuse, lie submerged under the waters of Falls Lake. This River also creates the beauty of the Neuse River Trail, a 34.5 miles (55.5 km) long greenway that stretches from Falls Lake Dam, Raleigh, North Carolina to Legend Park, Clayton, North Carolina.
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Fly ash, flue ash, coal ash, or pulverised fuel ash – plurale tantum: coal combustion residuals (CCRs) – is a coal combustion product that is composed of the particulates that are driven out of coal-fired boilers together with the flue gases. Ash that falls to the bottom of the boiler's combustion chamber is called bottom ash. In modern coal-fired power plants, fly ash is generally captured by electrostatic precipitators or other particle filtration equipment before the flue gases reach the chimneys. Together with bottom ash removed from the bottom of the boiler, it is known as coal ash.
Lake Norman is the largest man-made body of fresh water in North Carolina. It was created between 1959 and 1964 as part of the construction of the Cowans Ford Dam by Duke Energy.
Lake Oroville is a reservoir formed by the Oroville Dam impounding the Feather River, located in Butte County, northern California. The lake is situated 5 miles (8 km) northeast of the city of Oroville, within the Lake Oroville State Recreation Area, in the western foothills of the Sierra Nevada. Known as the second-largest reservoir in California, Lake Oroville is treated as a keystone facility within the California State Water Project by storing water, providing flood control, recreation, freshwater releases assist in controlling the salinity intrusion into the Sacramento-San Joaquin Delta and protecting fish and wildlife.
Duke Energy Corporation is an American electric power and natural gas holding company headquartered in Charlotte, North Carolina.
The Elk River is a tributary of the Kanawha River, 172 miles (277 km) long, in central West Virginia in the United States. Via the Kanawha and Ohio rivers, it is part of the watershed of the Mississippi River.
Belews Lake is a reservoir in Stokes, Rockingham, Guilford and Forsyth counties of North Carolina, near the towns of Stokesdale and Pine Hall. It was created in 1973 by the Duke Energy corporation as a cooling basin for the corporation's Belews Creek Steam Station, a coal-burning power plant. Cooling water was pumped back and forth between the plant and reservoir until 1986 when the corporation decided to use other methods to dispose of their coal ash waste. From 1974-1986, contaminants such as vanadium, nickel, cobalt, barium, arsenic, were introduced into the lake through the release of contaminated cooling water from the power plant back into the lake. Many scientific studies were undertaken at Belews Lake and their findings, along with those conducted at the Kesterson Reservoir, are fundamental to today's understanding of the ecological risks associated with elevated selenium concentrations in aquatic systems.
Sutton Lake is a 1,520-acre (6 km2) reservoir on the Elk River in Braxton and Webster counties, West Virginia. Sutton Lake is located just upstream of Sutton. It was authorized by Congress in the Flood Control Act of 1938. Construction of the dam began in 1956 and was completed in 1961. The dam is 210 feet (64 m) high, 1,178 feet (359 m) long, and constructed of concrete. The lake was named by Congressional action, Public Law 90-46, July 4, 1967.
Mountain Island Lake is a lake northwest of Charlotte, North Carolina created in 1924 to coincide with the building of Mountain Island Hydroelectric Station. It is named after the mountain which appears as an island in the lake, and the surrounding area is identified by the lake's name. The shape of the lake follows the meander of the Catawba River's course, dammed near the Mount Holly Wastewater Plant. Full pond elevation is approximately 647.5 feet (197 m). The lake has around 3,281 acres (13 km2) of surface area and 61 miles (98 km) of shoreline.
Marshall Steam Station is a coal power plant located at 35°35′51″N80°57′53″W in Sherrills Ford, Catawba County, North Carolina, United States and owned by Duke Energy. Named for former company president E.C. Marshall, the station is located on Lake Norman and began commercial operation in 1965.
The Kingston Fossil Plant coal fly ash slurry spill was an environmental and industrial disaster that occurred on Monday December 22, 2008, when a dike ruptured at a coal ash pond at the Tennessee Valley Authority's Kingston Fossil Plant in Roane County, Tennessee, releasing 1.1 billion US gallons of coal fly ash slurry. The coal-fired power plant, located across the Clinch River from the city of Kingston, used a series of ponds to store and dewater the fly ash, a byproduct of coal combustion. The spill released a slurry of fly ash and water, which traveled across the Emory River and its Swan Pond embayment, onto the opposite shore, covering up to 300 acres (1.2 km2) of the surrounding land. The spill damaged multiple homes and flowed into nearby waterways including the Emory River and Clinch River, both tributaries of the Tennessee River. It was the largest industrial spill in United States history.
An ash pond, also called a coal ash basin or surface impoundment, is an engineered structure used at coal-fired power stations for the disposal of two types of coal combustion products: bottom ash and fly ash. The pond is used as a landfill to prevent the release of ash into the atmosphere. Although the use of ash ponds in combination with air pollution controls decreases the amount of airborne pollutants, the structures pose serious health risks for the surrounding environment.
In February 2014, an Eden, North Carolina facility owned by Duke Energy spilled 39,000 tons of coal ash into the Dan River. The company later pled guilty to criminal negligence in their handling of coal ash at Eden and elsewhere and paid extremely minimal fines of over $5 million, compared to its $24 billion revenue in 2014. The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) has since been responsible for overseeing cleanup of the waste. EPA and Duke Energy signed an administrative order for the site cleanup.
Bear Creek is a tributary of the Neuse River in North Carolina, USA. It drains an area of intensive agriculture, and is heavily polluted with nitrates.
In September 2018, a dam failure caused by Hurricane Florence led to the leakage of coal ash into the Cape Fear River about five miles northwest of Wilmington, North Carolina. The coal ash came from two storage areas owned and operated by Duke Energy. Contaminants from the coal ash may have leached into the water source but long term testing has yet to be done by the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency or other environmental agencies. Clean up efforts were led by Duke Energy and mostly consisted of skimming the coal ash off the top of the water.
The W.S. Lee Steam Station, which was previously called the Lee Steam Station, is an electric generation station located near Williamston, South Carolina on the Saluda River. It was named for William States Lee who was chief engineer of Duke Power. He is the grandfather of William States Lee III, who was a chairman and president of Duke Power.
