If you received a letter urging you to stop the water you depended on to cook, clean, and bathe from a state agency, you would likely listen, right? Nobody wants to put their health – or their family’s health – at risk.

But what to do when you receive another letter, a mere 30 days later, asking you to forget about the dire warning in the first letter? No really, your well water is safe!

These questions are a reality for residents who live near the Allen Steam Station in Belmont. And in the latest move, Duke Energy released a statement to station WBTV that the utility will cease providing bottled water to residents, as it had been for the last year while tests were being conducted:

“We will continue providing bottled water in the near-term while the state’s process continues. Then we will work closely with residents on a schedule to stop deliveries in the coming months.” (You can read the full article here.)

Common sense says that people using well water and who live near these leaking, unlined pits full of heavy metal toxic waste are at risk. We know that the ponds are contaminating groundwater and rivers every day and still leaking. Coal ash is not safe and it will continue to threaten North Carolinians until it is moved to safer dry, lined storage.

“I hope the DEQ will hold Duke’s feet to the fire and clean up Plant Marshall.”

This week marked the end of the public hearings for the state’s coal ash cleanup plan. On Tuesday, Charlotte and Lake Norman residents packed the room, urging NC Department of Environmental Quality officials to re-instate the “high-risk” classification for the local Marshall Steam Station.

“I’m not sure if Duke (Energy) has been a good neighbor or a bad neighbor,” said plant neighbor Joel Cherry. “I know they’re an untrusting neighbor at times. … I hope the DEQ will hold Duke’s feet to the fire and clean up Plant Marshall.”

We do too, Mr. Cherry. Unfortunately, based on the previous actions of the McCrory Administration in handling coal ash cleanup and resciding the “do not drink” letters for North Carolina citizens, we don’t have much faith in DEQ putting the safety of the public and the health of our natural resources first.

The bottom line: community members living near coal ash ponds deserve clear, reliable guidance from the state, not more unanswered questions and confusion.