Before its coal-fired units were shuttered in 2012, Duke Energy's Dan River plant burned coal from mountaintop removal mines in Appalachia. The reality that the arsenic-laden ash now contaminating a North Carolina river was once a forested mountain peak highlights the destructive lifecycle of coal.
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At least some of the coal ash polluting the Dan River following Duke Energy's Feb. 2 spill used to be mountaintops in Central Appalachia. (Photo of the Dan River coal ash spill by Appalachian Voices.)
Image Caption:
At least some of the coal ash polluting the Dan River following Duke Energy's Feb. 2 spill used to be mountaintops in Central Appalachia. (Photo of the Dan River coal ash spill by Appalachian Voices.)