Asheville Steam Electric Power Plant has 12 groundwater monitoring wells, 7 of which have been polluted above federal advisory levels based on samples collected between November 17, 2010 and November 06, 2013. Groundwater at this site contains unsafe levels of manganese, nitrate and sulfate.
Site descriptionDuke Energy's Asheville Steam Electric Plant is located east of the French Broad River, 7 miles upstream of Asheville, North Carolina. The plant began commercial operations in 1964 and is capable of generating 376 MW of electricity from coal and 324 MW from combustion turbines. The Environmental Protection Agency classified two coal ash ponds on site as having high-hazard dams. One of the ponds actively stores wet coal combustion waste, and the second pond stores dry material dredged from other pond. The property boundary is located 250 feet south of the ash ponds. Progress Energy began a voluntary groundwater monitoring program at the site in 2007 and found elevated levels of several coal ash pollutants.
Asheville Steam Electric Plant is among the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency's list of potential damage cases, indicating that it has potentially polluted groundwater or surface water at levels which threaten human health and the environment. For more information regarding the Asheville Plant, see EIP's 2010 report, Out of Control and visit SoutheastCoalAsh.org.