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Suit blames well contamination on Dominion's Possum Point ash ponds.
A pair of Dumfries homeowners have filed suits seeking millions in damages from Dominion Energy, claiming heavy metals seeping from coal ash ponds at the Possum Point Power Station contaminated their drinking water wells.
A pair of Dumfries homeowners have filed suits seeking millions in damages from Dominion Energy, claiming heavy metals seeping from coal ash ponds at the Possum Point Power Station contaminated their drinking water wells.
The power station’s coal ash ponds, where the remnants of burnt coal were kept, are the scene of a clash among the utility, residents, and state and local officials over the company’s closure plans.
The lawsuits — filed on behalf of Daniel Marrow and his family and Brian West, both of whom own homes on Possum Point Road near the power station — allege that concentrations of hexavalent chromium, lead, boron, cobalt and other metals found in their wells came from the nearby power plant, which burned coal until 2003.
“The defendant knew or should have known that placing multiple unlined coal ash ponds near a residential community that relied on well water would cause groundwater contamination that would then contaminate the nearby properties and potable wells,” the suits say.
Marrow’s suit claims damages of $6 million while West’s claims $3 million.
The Virginia Beach lawyer who filed both suits, Mark J. Favaloro, referred a reporter to Annapolis, Md., attorney Roy Mason, who could not be reached Friday.
“Dominion is aware that the lawsuit has been filed in Prince William County,” company spokesman Robert Richardson said. “However, the company has not been formally served and does not have any further comment at this time.”
***
In December, Dominion announced that it would hook up residents near the Possum Point station to public water after months of arguing that contamination from the ash ponds was not leaving the site.
New monitoring wells requested by the state Department of Environmental Quality showed elevated levels of metals and movement patterns that were inconsistent with past data, the company said.
Eight residents have received offers to connect to public water and three have accepted, Richardson said.
Rounds of testing by the Virginia Department of Health, the Virginia Cooperative Extension’s Household Water Quality Program, the Potomac Riverkeeper Network and a contractor hired by Prince William County have found varying levels of troubling metals, such as hexavalent chromium, lead, antimony and other constituents that can be associated with coal ash — such as boron and strontium — as well as low pH levels that corrode plumbing, in drinking water wells along Possum Point Road.
None has pointed conclusively to the source of the contamination, which can be difficult to prove.
A report released in October by a Duke University team found that hexavalent chromium — a potential carcinogen — was naturally occurring in hundreds of drinking water wells in North Carolina near Duke Energy coal ash ponds that had long been suspected as the source.
***
Marrow and West have been vocal critics of Dominion over the past year as the company faced mounting opposition to its plans to close its ash ponds onsite at four locations across the state.
That wave of resistance made it all the way to governor’s desk in April in the form of legislation that halted the permitting process for closing the ponds, requiring mapping of existing contamination at the sites and more study of alternatives, including excavating the millions of tons of ash for deposit in a modern, lined landfill.
Dominion had planned to consolidate the ash in five ponds at Possum Point, Chesterfield, Bremo Bluff and Chesapeake and cover them with a synthetic liner and a layer of turf after treating and discharging the water they contain in response to new federal regulations on ash storage.
But after opposing the legislation during the General Assembly session, Dominion ultimately agreed to conduct the assessments and abide by the permitting delay, which extends to May 2018.
“We’re right in the middle of doing the assessment work that the General Assembly and the governor tasked us with doing,” Richardson said. “It’s important to remember that this is a legacy problem that goes back more than 50 years and it’s getting fixed on our watch.”
Environmental groups say tests show all of Dominion’s ash ponds are leaching heavy metals into ground and surface water.
And in March, a federal judge, siding with the Sierra Club, found that arsenic from the ash pits at the closed Chesapeake Energy Center was leaking into the Elizabeth River in violation of the federal Clean Water Act, though he did not impose penalties and directed Dominion and the environmental group to submit remediation plans.
Both have done so, though, “despite good faith efforts by both parties, the parties disagree on several other aspects of the plan,” Dominion’s filing says.
***
More than two years ago, Dominion released nearly 28 million gallons of water from one of its coal ash ponds at the Possum Point station into an unnamed tributary of Quantico Creek that locals call the “Beaver Pond.” Marrow and West’s properties border the Beaver Pond.
Though the Virginia Department of Environmental Quality later pronounced that the discharge was covered by an existing company permit, the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency isn’t so sure.
For about a year, the federal agency has been examining whether the discharge, which came before Dominion installed a pricey treatment system to reduce the concentrations of heavy metals in the coal ash wastewater, violates the Clean Water Act.
“That was DEQ’s determination,” DEQ spokesman Bill Hayden said. “EPA is looking into that, and we don’t know what their conclusion is. Whatever they do conclude, DEQ will do whatever is necessary to support that.”
The EPA has sent informational requests to Dominion and to the DEQ as it “evaluates the company’s compliance” with its discharge permits at Possum Point, an EPA spokesman said.
Last fall, Mark Zolandz, a member of the EPA’s enforcement branch in the water protection division, called the DEQ seeking information on Dominion’s coal ash pond closures, according to a voicemail obtained by the Potomac Riverkeeper Network.
“We’re trying to determine whether we should be pursuing enforcement against Possum Point only for their discharges from last year, which we’ve talked with them a little bit about and they’ve shared some information about or if there are more global issues,” Zolandz said.
The message prompted an email from Jefferson Reynolds, director of the DEQ’s enforcement division, to DEQ Director David Paylor and Director of Operations James Golden.
“This is a message I think you should hear first-hand concerning EPA interest in enforcement at Possum Point,” Reynolds wrote. “Let me know if you need additional information or want to set up a meeting to discuss the variables.”
That exchange is routine, according to Hayden.
“The fact that EPA communicated to DEQ about the situation wasn’t really all that unusual. The fact that our staff informed Director Paylor is not all unusual. That’s a standard thing we do,” he said in March. “There’s really nothing out of the ordinary as far as that goes.”
In January, the EPA sent Dominion what’s known as a “308 letter,” a reference to Section 308 of the Clean Water Act.
“It’s the first step EPA takes in an enforcement action,” said Eric Schaeffer, a former director of civil enforcement at the EPA who is now the executive director of the nonprofit Environmental Integrity Project. “When those letters go, it says there’s enough of a concern that the agency wants some more information to determine whether there’s been some kind of violation.”
rzullo@timesdispatch.com
(804) 649-6453
Twitter: @rczullo
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Duke Energy must drain the swamp.
The mess that is Duke Energy’s coal-ash basins continues as the methods for draining and closing the one at Belews Creek Steam Station in Stokes County get settled. At least we’re getting down to the nitty gritty of it.
Before the cap can be placed on the Belews Creek coal-ash basin, a few details have to be settled. We hope, for the public’s sake, Duke Energy and the state will take the safest route.
The mess that is Duke Energy’s coal-ash basins continues as the methods for draining and closing the one at Belews Creek Steam Station in Stokes County get settled. At least we’re getting down to the nitty gritty of it.
But now even the fine details are creating friction, the Journal’s Bertrand M. Gutiérrez reported. Some came to light during a public hearing at the Stokes County Courthouse in Danbury last week.
The N.C. Department of Environmental Quality and Duke Energy agree on a proposed permit under which most of the wastewater in the ash basin would be treated and then flushed into the Dan River, the Journal reported. It would happen in a controlled manner, according to DEQ officials, allowing no more than 1 foot a week and no more than 2 million gallons a day.
“The problem is that DEQ has put no limits in its proposed permit that would force Duke Energy to treat the ash water so that dangerous pollutants — including arsenic, bromide, mercury, chromium, zinc, barium, antimony, boron and in some cases selenium — are reduced to safe levels before water is emptied out of the basin, “ Myra Blake, a staff attorney at the Southern Environmental Law Center’s Chapel Hill office, told the Journal.
DEQ engineer Sergei Chernikov said no limits are needed because the wastewater would be treated before being released and no coal-ash contaminant would violate federal or state water-quality standards.
Blake responded: “If DEQ really believes that these pollutants will not cause any problems, why not include appropriate limits to ensure that that is the case?”
Why not, indeed? If the state really believes these pollutants won’t cause any problems, why not include appropriate limits?
There’s also the problem of water seeping from the ash basin to nearby bodies of water. Duke Energy said in March that the water has been treated and the seeps don’t affect water quality, but DEQ still required the company to take corrective action, the Journal reported. The new proposal would allow the seeps to continue. Bad idea.
And while Duke Energy plans to drain the ash basin and then cap it, conservationists have doubts about the planned method. They want the coal ash removed entirely and put in a lined, dry landfill. They say coal-ash contaminants left in the unlined ash basin would continue to seep into groundwater, even if capped.
We realize there’s expense involved in excavating the coal-ash basin. But public safety must come first and the clean-up must be thorough and unquestionable.
Another public hearing, as yet unscheduled, will take place in December. We encourage the public to attend and give their input.
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Courtesy Virginia Organizing
VIDEO: Calling out pollution, two dozen are arrested in Virginia.
'Citizens' Picket' seeks more aggressive action from Gov. Terry McAuliffe on coal ash, pipelines and rising seas.
Calling out pollution, two dozen are arrested in Virginia
Protesters getting arrested in front of the governor's mansion in Richmond, Va. Photo courtesy Virginia Organizing
Oct. 5, 2016
'Citizens' Picket' seeks more aggressive action from Gov. Terry McAuliffe on coal ash, pipelines and rising seas.
By Environmental Health News
Twenty-three people were arrested Wednesday as the fight to stop fossil fuel infrastructure erupted in Virginia, according to groups staging the civil disobedience.
Some 50 people picketed Gov. Terry McAuliffe's mansion, part of a coalition of environment and social justice groups demanding a stop to coal ash, fossil fuel energy development and a fracked-gas pipeline that will bisect the state.
Among their targets: The 301-mile Mountain Valley Pipeline, designed to bring gas from the Marcellus and Utica shale plays in Pennsylvania, Ohio and West Virginia to a connection with the national grid in southern Virginia.
The march comes amid a growing—and increasingly successful—focus by environmental groups on stopping infrastructure necessary to develop and transport fossil fuel reserves.
Earlier this year President Obama killed TransCanada's application to build the Keystone XL pipeline to ferry oil from Alberta's tar sands to refineries in Louisiana.
And for months this summer and fall, almost 1,000 Native Americans and their supporters have camped near the Missouri River in North Dakota, protesting a pipeline meant to carry crude oil from the state's lucrative but isolated Bakken development to market.
"Opposition to fracked-gas pipelines is growing across our region and the country—and a loud, local, community-driven climate justice movement is growing with it," said Virginia Organizing, one of the groups spearheading the rally, in a statement. "The White House is beginning to shift. The economics are beginning to shift. And people, from the Standing Rock Sioux in North Dakota to landowners in Giles County, Va., are coming together to protect their water, land and heritage."
[Full disclosure: Virginia Organizing is the umbrella group that, for a fee, handles payroll and accounting for Environmental Health Sciences, the publisher of EHN.org and DailyClimate.org. It does not influence in any way the websites' editorial policy or decisions]
The Richmond marchers weren't just protesting pipelines. Over the past three days, they've also called attention to the damage caused by coal ash ponds, especially to local rivers and drinking water supplies.
Dean Naujoks of the Potomac Riverkeeper Network told of tests his organization has done of water samples from tributaries to the James and Potomac rivers. Holding a bottle of water from a family's drinking well, he said tests found hexavalent chromium, lead, antimony and other harmful byproducts that often leach from coal ash ponds.
"This is toxic," Naujoks said. "Who would give this to their kids?"
The "Citizens' Picket" focused on three major pollution threats facing Virginia: Pipelines on Monday, coal ash on Tuesday and coastlines—especially rising sea levels—on Wednesday.
EHN welcomes republication of our stories, but we require that publications include the author's name and Environmental Health News at the top of the piece, along with a link back to EHN's version.
For questions or feedback about this piece, contact Brian Bienkowski at bbienkowski@ehn.org.
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