The heavy rain expected from Hurricane Florence could flood hog manure pits, coal ash dumps and other industrial sites in North Carolina, creating a noxious witches’ brew of waste that might wash into homes and threaten drinking water supplies. “The environmental impacts will be from concentrated animal feeding operations and coal ash pits. Our farmers take hurricane threats extremely seriously.”The Environmental Protection Agency said Tuesday that it would be monitoring nine toxic waste cleanup sites near the Carolinas coast for potential flooding. Also of concern are more than two dozen massive coal ash pits operated by Duke Energy, the state’s primary electricity provider. Since power plants need vast amounts of water to generate steam, their unlined waste pits are located along lakes and rivers.

Source: National Post September 11, 2018 21:45 UTC