Update: Duke Energy Will Release Toxic Waste Safety Info

Updated Friday, Sept. 22 at 5 p.m.

Duke Energy will release previously unpublished, federally required information about how it manages coal ash, the toxic material left over from burning coal.

Earlier this week, four environmental organizations threatened to sue North Carolina-based Duke Energy, which serves more than 700,000 Hoosiers and is one of the country’s largest electric utilities.

The groups said Duke is required to publish maps that would show how surrounding areas would be affected if coal ash lagoons burst, and the contact information for emergency responders.

In a statement late Friday, Duke Vice President George Hamrick said they’d, quote- “determined that it is appropriate to post additional information related to emergency action plans for coal ash facilities….”

A federal rule from 2015 requires electric utilities to publish information on the safe disposal of coal ash.

Hamrick says Duke last updated its emergency action plan before that rule went into effect, but, quote-“after revisiting the issue… we agree it is appropriate to post additional information and make it available to the public.”

Hamrick says the information will be available online “in the coming weeks.”

Our previous report, Sept. 20

A group of Indiana environmental organizations are threatening to sue Duke Energy, one of the country’s largest electric utilities, over information on toxic waste management.

Earthjustice, the Hoosier Environmental Council, and two other environmental groups want Duke to release contact information for emergency responders and maps that detail where coal ash would spill in the event containment ponds break. Coal ash is the toxic residue left over from burning coal.

Lisa Evans, a senior attorney for Earthjustice, says every other utility in the country provides that required information in its emergency action plans.

“If you lived next to a toxic dump impounding millions of tons of toxic material, you’d want this information to be publically available,” Evans says.

In an emailed response, Duke Energy spokesperson Erin Culbert says, “We provide full versions of these plans to local emergency planners…” and that this is “…the latest attempt to use fear and the courts to upend public policy.”

Earthjustice’s Lisa Evans says she hopes the move creates “urgency” for the utility and says Duke can avoid a lawsuit by immediately publishing the information.