GOP Bill Protects Duke's Coal Ash (of course)

[G_j]

http://www.citizen-times.com/viewart/20140317/NEWS01/303170058/GOP-bill-protects-Duke-s-coal-ash

Documents and interviews collected by The Associated Press show how Duke’s lobbyists prodded Republican legislators to tuck a 330-word provision in a regulatory reform bill running nearly 60 single-spaced pages.

Though the bill never once mentions coal ash, the change allowed Duke to avoid any costly cleanup of contaminated groundwater leaching from its unlined dumps toward rivers, lakes and the drinking wells of nearby homeowners — and toward unsuspecting residents near Lake Julian.

Passed overwhelmingly by the GOP-controlled legislature, the bill was signed into law by Gov. Pat McCrory, a pro-business Republican who worked at Duke for 28 years

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“This sweeping change gutted North Carolina’s groundwater law,” recounts D.J. Gerken, a senior attorney for the Southern Environmental Law Center

The level of coordination between Duke and North Carolina’s lawmakers and regulators had long been of concern to environmentalists. But when a Duke dump ruptured on Feb. 2 — spewing enough coal ash to coat 70 miles of the Dan River with toxic sludge — the issue took on new urgency.

Federal prosecutors have launched a criminal investigation into the spill, issuing at least 23 grand jury subpoenas to Duke executives and state officials
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