yes, on the dams. then started to employ its mandate of protecting the groundwater through the clean water act implementation and they started off, i guess after the kingston bill they started to do better monitoring and enforcement. there weren t any real regulations, specifically, to the coal ash ponds. given the governor s relationship with duke energy, i mean, do citizens of north carolina, can they trust that everything is on the up and up in terms of the state being the regulator of this massive company the governor used to work for? well, that s a big problem. he s been quite cozy with the industry and the department has made it very clear that their customers are a regulated industry and not the public who have a right to clean air and clean water. so i think there s a great deal of skepticism which is why some folks are very happy that the epa s down here trying to help enforce the cleanup. yeah. explain to me the epa s role in this. the epa, as far as i can tell, basi
yes, on the dams. then started to employ its mandate of protecting the groundwater through the clean water act implementation and they started off, i guess after the kingston bill they started to do better monitoring and enforcement. there weren t any real regulations, specifically, to the coal ash ponds. given the governor s relationship with duke energy, i mean, do citizens of north carolina, can they trust that everything is on the up and up in terms of the state being the regulator of this massive company the governor used to work for? well, that s a big problem. he s been quite cozy with the industry and the department has made it very clear that their customers are a regulated industry and not the public who have a right to clean air and clean water. so i think there s a great deal of skepticism which is why some folks are very happy that the epa s down here trying to help enforce the cleanup. yeah. explain to me the epa s role in this. the epa, as far as i can tell, basi
adequately regulate the entity it s in charge of regulating. we re going to come in and issuing subpoenas to make sure there s no criminal wrongdoing in collusion between duke energy and the state regulator. right. the u.s. attorney s office has conducted a grand jury investigation which began last week, and separately the epa is coming down to enforce the prevention of pollution of our waterways. it s just this problem has been a real problem for our state forever. we ve got more coal ash ponds than any other state. we ve got more hazard dams. we know it s full of toxins and contaminants and known carcinogens. it s been very problematic to me to watch our lack of regulation continue when we know we have this huge problem. and duke understood that the stuff was seeping out of its dams, its dirt dikes, and the department knew it, too. so it s just, you know, you got to wonder, if we hadn t had the spill how much longer this would have gone on. how powerful is duke? quite. i ve n
we re going to come in and issuing subpoenas to make sure there s no criminal wrongdoing in collusion between duke energy and the state regulator. right. the u.s. attorney s office has conducted a grand jury investigation which began last week, and separately the epa is coming down to enforce the prevention of pollution of our waterways. it s just this problem has been a real problem for our state forever. we ve got more coal ash ponds than any other state. we ve got more hazard dams. we know it s full of toxins and contaminants and known carcinogens. it s been very problematic to me to watch our lack of regulation continue when we know we have this huge problem. and duke understood that the stuff was seeping out of its dams, its dirt dikes, and the department knew it, too. so it s just, you know, you got to wonder, if we hadn t had the spill how much longer this would have gone on. how powerful is duke? quite. i ve never been able to get anything past legislature they
dan river. the most recent checks of the river show aluminum down street from the spill that still exceed water safety standards, there were protests over the poshlt that duke energy is going to make its own customers pay for the cleanup. duke has threatened to to do that to their customers even though the coal ash ponds are not their customer s responsibilities, they re their own. the state of kentucky also wants in on that act and that story is ahead. stay with us.