The closed coal ash pond (foreground) on the banks of Belews Lake across Pine Hall Road from the Belews Creek Steam Station. Nearly 12 million tons of submerged coal ash is stored at the plant. WALT UNKS, JOURNAL
The N.C. Division of Waste Management said the permit was approved for the Stokes County facility at 3195 Pine Hall Road following an application review and public comment period.
The cost to complete the closure by excavation, including the new landfill, is estimated to be $453 million, the N.C. Department of Environmental Quality said in a statement. The cost to perform the 30-year post-closure activities and monitoring is estimated as $181 million.
EDEN â New signs warn people using the Dan River about the dangerous low-head dam near the Duke Energy Steam Station.
But the Charlotte-based utility said this week it likely wonât remove or modify the dam where four people died in a family tubing accident two weeks ago.
Duke Energy responded to the tragedy by commissioning new warning signs it placed along the river on June 22, said Duke Energy spokesman Bill Norton. The energy company had signs in place at the time of the accident, but the new signs feature bolder colors and larger-size type.
One sign is placed 700 feet upstream of the dam to give paddlers and tubers an alert to get out of the water and go around the hazard. It reads: âWarning! Submerged Dam Ahead!ââ
Susie C. Spear
Low-head dams, such as the 8-foot-high structure at Duke Energyâs Dan River Steam Station, are a threat to public safety, claiming nearly 50 lives nationwide each year, say civil engineers and dam safety advocates.
Their aim: to educate the public about the hazards of low-head dams and convince dam owners to rehabilitate the structures.
On June 16, nine members of an Eden family set out on the Dan River in tubes for a two-hour float that turned deadly when the group went over the Duke Energy dam.
Four survived, and rescue teams worked for five days to recover the bodies of four of five missing tubers, including a 7-year-old boy. The search for Teresa Villano, 35, continued this past week near Draper Landing along the Dan River along N.C. 700.
WOODY MARSHALL photos, NEWS & RECORD
Ruben Villano is embraced at the prayer vigil for victims of the
June 16 Dan River tubing accident in Eden. Villano was in the group
of nine tubers floating down the river that went over a dam. Four
people, including Villano, were rescued from the water the next
day. Four bodies were recovered and one person remains missing.
WOODY MARSHALL, NEWS & RECORD
Elias Meadows, 4, holds a candle at the prayer vigil Saturday
for the victims of the June 16 Dan River tubing accident in
Eden.
WOODY MARSHALL, NEWS & RECORD
Greensboro News & Record Angelica Villano thanks everyone for
Nine people got into the river upstream from the Duke Energy dam. Emergency officials say most people get out before reaching the dam, but the tubers didn't.