Residents Protest North Carolina Meeting On Coal Ash Problems

Some North Carolina residents are upset with the way state environmental officials conducted a meeting on coal ash ponds at two Duke Energy plants.

The meeting was held Wednesday evening at the Jamestown campus of Guilford Technical Community College.

The News & Record reports many neighbors of the Belews Creek Steam Station near Walnut Cove and the retired Buck Steam Station in Rowan County boycotted the meeting, saying it required travel on a weekday about dinner time.

The state Department of Environmental Quality said the hearing was set midway between the two plants so neighbors of each plant would have similar commutes.

There were four speakers at the session, one of them from Duke Energy. The meeting was adjourned after half an hour.