RALEIGH -- Progress Energy won't make safety upgrades to some of its controversial coal-ash ponds in Chatham County until environmental regulators spell out clear rules governing the toxic-waste pits.
The Raleigh electric utility could delay adopting safety recommendations until next year at waste sites that have received a "poor" safety rating from the Environmental Protection Agency.
Progress is the only power company in the nation whose ash pits have received "poor" ratings from the federal regulatory agency this year. The company told the EPA in a letter last week that it will seek to persuade the agency to change the "poor" ratings.
Progress told the EPA that some of the pits in Chatham County have been inactive for decades, are overgrown with woods and shouldn't be regulated as dams.
The EPA has reviewed 43 ash pits, giving five "poor" ratings to Progress pits in Chatham County and one "poor" rating near Asheville. The EPA urged the company to analyze the sites for structural stability and to make other fixes.
Progress has agreed to conduct the structural safety analyses, even though the company disagrees with the EPA's rationale for the "poor" safety ratings.
"We remain unconvinced that the criteria for a poor rating as derived from the New Jersey DEP [Department of Environmental Protection] is appropriate or recognized on a national level, or was carried out in a uniform manner throughout the country," wrote Charles Gates, Progress vice president for PowerGeneration Carolinas, to the EPA in a letter.
The pits, which store massive amounts of ash from coal-burning power plants, came under public scrutiny last year after an accidental spill in Tennessee released 5 million cubic yards of ash and water and flooded more than 300 acres. Inspector reports said that the Progress Energy pits are within five miles of schools, hospitals, nursing homes, the Blue Ridge Parkway and other high-risk sites that lie in their downhill path.
The EPA assigns four levels of safety ratings, ranging from "satisfactory" to "unsatisfactory." Progress wants all six "poor" ratings changed to "satisfactory," the highest safety rating.
Progress will comply with EPA recommendations to remove trees, improve drainage and perform other modifications at its two active ash ponds at the Cape Fear power plant in Moncure in Chatham County.
"We will do the studies," Progress spokesman Scott Sutton said. "But if the studies show the structures are safe, we will request they not just file it away and nod, but change the rating to reflect that we did the study."
But the company says that the three inactive ponds at the Cape Fear plant haven't received ash sluice water in decades and shouldn't be considered dams. The dry, inactive ponds are now filled in with woodland, Sutton said.
Progress will work with state environmental regulators to reclassify the pits, Sutton said. If the company succeeds, it hopes to decommission the sites.
The sixth ash pond rated "poor" is near Asheville. Progress has agreed to conduct safety analyses of that site.
