Dam breached at North Carolina plant; coal ash may be flowing into Cape Fear River

A Duke Energy dam containing a lake in North Carolina was breached Friday, possibly causing coal ash to flow into the nearby Cape Fear River, the company said.

Floodwaters topped a dike at Sutton Lake, a 1,100-acre reservoir at the L.V. Sutton Power Station. That water caused breaches in the dam on the south end of the lake, which was flowing back into the river, a Duke Energy spokeswoman told The Associated Press.

The 200-mile Cape Fear River flows into the Atlantic at Wilmington, North Carolina.

Duke’s Sutton Plant shut down in 2013 and was dismantled by 2017. However, the site was home to about 7 million tons of coal ash at the time of its closure. Duke is continuing to excavate the waste pits.

Coal ash is a byproduct produced primarily at coal-fired power plants. It contains contaminants harmful to human health including mercury, cadmium and arsenic.

Heavy rains from Florence caused one of the coal ash landfills to partially collapse, Duke reported on Saturday. The incident likely caused coal ash to run off into a nearby cooling pond, a Duke spokesperson told the AP, but the company was not certain at the time whether the waste flowed into Cape Fear River.

Duke energy shares, which were higher before the news hit, rolled over and were down 1.2 percent Friday afternoon.

Hurricane Florence packed high wind and rain measured in feet to the Carolinas, followed by rising rivers and standing water in fields.

Florence made landfall on Sept. 13 as a Category 1 hurricane in a resort town just east of Wilmington, North Carolina’s eighth-largest city, which has been cut off by floodwaters. At least 18 storm-related deaths have been reported in the region.

David Fountain, president of Duke Energy’s North Carolina operations, told CNBC on Monday that the impact from Florence has been the most severe he’s ever experienced.

“I’ve lived in North Carolina my entire life, and I’ve seen a lot of bad storms, a lot of bad hurricanes. But this is absolutely the worst,” Fountain said.

Property damage and disruption from Florence is expected to total at least $17 billion to $22 billion, but that estimate could end up being on the conservative end, according to Moody’s Analytics.

The company estimates 49,000 homes and businesses were still without power late this week.