Around the State: Flooding Brings Pollution Threats
Massive flooding in the wake of Hurricane Florence has created catastrophic damage in many coastal counties, while more than a million people may have lost power by the time all the impacts are felt. If you would like to help, please donate to the state’s relief fund. You can also sign up to volunteer at that link.
The flooding will leave another unwelcome result in its wake: dangerous spikes in water pollution. Some of that pollution can’t be avoided, such as inundated sewage treatment plants in low-lying coastal areas, and the debris swept up by the rising waters moving overland. But other problems are the result of avoidable policy choices. Among the potential pollution flood risks are landfills, toxic waste sites, and hog lagoons.
We’re keeping an eye on problems as they develop, including the status of the hundreds of open hog waste lagoons concentrated in the southeastern part of the state hammered by Florence.
There is already at least one confirmed containment failure for a coal ash storage pit, at the old Sutton Plant near Wilmington. Duke Energy reports the release of about 2,000 cubic yards of coal ash after a slope failure, but says it is not clear how far the ash got towards surface waters.
Another danger highlighted by the track of this storm was its course almost directly over an operating nuclear power plant. That’s Duke Energy’s Brunswick nuclear plant near Southport, just four miles from the oceanfront, essentially at sea level. It has long been a focus of safety concern related to storms and flooding. It is one of the oldest nuclear plants in the region, and is the same design and age as the Fukushima plant in Japan. That plant suffered disastrous failure and radiation releases following the 2011 incident in which flooding was produced by an earthquake-caused tsunami. Duke announced on Thursday that it was temporarily shutting down the plant in preparation for the hurricane’s arrival.
There is one final note in relation to the environment and Florence—the unknown degree to which its unusual strength and the flooding it produced are products of climate change. Climate scientists and meteorologists are increasingly confident in reporting that hurricanes such as Florence are already more severe and damaging as a result of ongoing climate change. The Associated Press reported on Saturday that its survey of such scientists in connection with Florence confirmed that conclusion.
“Florence is yet another poster child for the human-supercharged storms that are becoming more common and destructive as the planet warms,” said Jonathan Overpeck, dean of the environment school at the University of Michigan. Pennsylvania State University climate scientist Michael Mann added, “I think we can say that the storm [Florence] is stronger, wetter and more impactful from a coastal flooding standpoint than it would have been BECAUSE of human-induced warming.”
Legislators, administration officials, and others who are ignoring this reality and seeking to move us backward on clean energy and climate action should take note. Those who fail to do so should be held to account at the polls.
