In the Southside region, it’s socially acceptable to bash the hell out of Duke Energy right now for the coal ash spill. Where’s the environmentalist outrage to a company that’s leaked out 15,000 gallons of concentrated sulfuric acid into a river?<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n
Well, now. Isn’t that something? Why haven’t we heard from all the environmental groups that have clustered around the coal ash spill on the Dan River? Ten fines from environmental damage in ten years. 13,000,000 pounds of toxins released in 2011.<\/p>\n
The plant’s solution seems to be a simple one. Pay the fines and it’s back to business as usual. Where’s the calls to punish this plant over the past 10 years and the contractors that run it? How about 15,000 gallons of concentrated sulfuric acid released into the ecosystem? Look at that. After all of this constant polluting, it’s also business as usual for the environment. As I’ve said before, Mother Nature has a miraculous ability to heal herself.<\/p>\n
I’m certainly not endorsing this degree of pollution nor any pollution at all. I believe that this plant should be fined severely and that the operations of the plant clearly need a strong degree of oversight by state and federal regulators.\u00a0 That being said, this strongly adds to my belief that these environmental groups that have descended to the Dan River region are opportunistic\u00a0 to a degree and seem to “never let a serious crisis go to waste”.<\/p>\n
The short-term effects of this coal ash spill have been very minor and are now almost gone. We’ll have to wait and see what the medium and long-term effects are but based on what I see here, I’m feeling that this is going to be a case of “So That Happened”. Anyone that shares my hope for the continued success and health for the Southside region should share that opinion.<\/p>\n
I’ll be glad to see these environmental groups fly out of the region as fast as they flew in. Once there’s nothing more that they can use to scare the public into panic, they’ll have no reason to stick around. When that happens, I hope we get a statement from them saying “Damn, we were wrong.”… but I won’t hold my breath for that.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
In the Southside region, it’s socially acceptable to bash the hell out of Duke Energy right now for the coal ash spill. Where’s the environmentalist outrage to a company that’s leaked out 15,000 gallons of concentrated sulfuric acid into a river?<\/p>\n
[…]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":true,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2}},"categories":[20,22],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-8244","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-newscentral","category-opinioncentral","odd"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/pwqFk-28Y","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_likes_enabled":false,"jetpack-related-posts":[{"id":9441,"url":"https:\/\/www.southsidecentral.com\/wordpress\/2014\/07\/23\/theyre-still-trying-to-scare-you-folks\/","url_meta":{"origin":8244,"position":0},"title":"They’re still trying to scare you, folks.","author":"SouthsideCentral","date":"July 23, 2014","format":false,"excerpt":"The threat to the Dan River from the coal ash spill is gone. Actually, it never was there in the first place. That's not stopping an environmentalist group from still trying to scare the hell out of you. Law group says 94 percent of deposit still in river Let's take\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Danville"","block_context":{"text":"Danville","link":"https:\/\/www.southsidecentral.com\/wordpress\/category\/locations\/danville\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"sclogo","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.southsidecentral.com\/wordpress\/wp-content\/uploads\/2014\/05\/sclogo.jpg?resize=350%2C200","width":350,"height":200},"classes":[]},{"id":10394,"url":"https:\/\/www.southsidecentral.com\/wordpress\/2014\/09\/24\/duke-energy-making-it-right\/","url_meta":{"origin":8244,"position":1},"title":"Duke Energy: Making It Right***","author":"SouthsideCentral","date":"September 24, 2014","format":false,"excerpt":"***\u00a0 = Right for Duke Energy, that is. Duke Energy pumps money into Dan River projects (Register & Bee article. Paywall may apply unless you break through it.) Then take a look at Lee Vogler's Facebook post about Duke Energy's \"gift\" to Danville. (No Facebook account required) I tried to\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "NewsCentral"","block_context":{"text":"NewsCentral","link":"https:\/\/www.southsidecentral.com\/wordpress\/category\/newscentral\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"sclogo","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.southsidecentral.com\/wordpress\/wp-content\/uploads\/2014\/05\/sclogo.jpg?resize=350%2C200","width":350,"height":200},"classes":[]},{"id":8510,"url":"https:\/\/www.southsidecentral.com\/wordpress\/2014\/04\/15\/some-things-i-learned-about-the-coal-ash-spill\/","url_meta":{"origin":8244,"position":2},"title":"Some things I learned about the Coal Ash spill…","author":"SouthsideCentral","date":"April 15, 2014","format":false,"excerpt":"The EPA hosted an open house at Danville's Community Market on Monday afternoon with a lot of state and federal agencies talking about the coal ash spill and the cleanup efforts. SouthsideCentral was there talking and asking questions. Let's take a look at some of the interesting things that I\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Danville"","block_context":{"text":"Danville","link":"https:\/\/www.southsidecentral.com\/wordpress\/category\/locations\/danville\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":8165,"url":"https:\/\/www.southsidecentral.com\/wordpress\/2014\/02\/07\/lets-talk-about-the-coal-ash-spill\/","url_meta":{"origin":8244,"position":3},"title":"Let’s talk about the coal ash spill…","author":"SouthsideCentral","date":"February 7, 2014","format":false,"excerpt":"It' s another case of actual reality having to take precedence before virtual reality, but SouthsideCentral rolls on... As most people know, there was a spill of coal ash from a Duke Energy power plant near Eden, NC. The coal ash and related waste spilled into the Dan River and\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "BusinessCentral"","block_context":{"text":"BusinessCentral","link":"https:\/\/www.southsidecentral.com\/wordpress\/category\/businesscentral\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":11204,"url":"https:\/\/www.southsidecentral.com\/wordpress\/2014\/11\/17\/coal-ash-information-forum-live-11172014\/","url_meta":{"origin":8244,"position":4},"title":"Coal Ash Information Forum – LIVE! (11\/17\/2014)","author":"SouthsideCentral","date":"November 17, 2014","format":false,"excerpt":"We're LIVE! at the Institute for a Coal Ash Spill Community Information Forum. The meeting runs from 6PM to 8PM and you'll get the only LIVE coverage of this event here on SouthsideCentral. Here's the media release on what is going to happen today... 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