Number of dangerous coal ash sites grows

And North Carolina has more than its fair share:

The groups say there are 67 such sites in the country, including at least seven in North Carolina. They say the sites contain dangerous levels of arsenic, lead, mercury and other toxins - pollutants that would have gone up the smokestack but are now filtered out and stored in giant pits or basins.

The Environmental Integrity Project, Earthjustice and the Sierra Club issued their expanded warning Thursday, in advance of a series of public hearings scheduled by the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency.

One of those public hearings will take place in Charlotte on September 14th:

Duke Energy Corp. has 13 coal-ash retention ponds in the Carolinas. Ten are on the EPA’s list of 44 potentially high-hazard sites across the country.

The Charlotte-based energy giant has said cleaning up the ash ponds at its coal plants would cost more than $1 billion.

The EPA picked Charlotte as the site of one of seven (up from five as previously reported) national public hearings on proposed rules for coal ash from power plants.

The local EPA hearing will be Sept. 14 at the Holiday Inn Charlotte on 2707 Little Rock Road, near Charlotte/Douglas International Airport.