Sandbar
Coal Ash Art
SANDBAR
ARTIST: CAROLINE RUTLEDGE ARMIJO
Title: Sandbar
Date of Work: 2022
Medium: 80 Slices of Encapsulated Coal Ash Hexagonal Posts, Paint
Price: NFS
Dimensions: Object H: 2” W: 31” D: 10’
This piece represents the 70 mile sandbar released into the Dan River in February 2014. Eighty slices of the hex-shaped posts represent the 80 million tons of coal ash to be excavated under the decision.
Following the Dan River Spill, a legal pathway appeared to clean up the 12 million tons of coal ash in the storage lagoon at Belews Creek, along with the coal ash ponds at all of the Duke Energy locations in North Carolina. Five years later, after a lengthy journey of statewide coalition with Alliance of Carolinians Together (ACT) Against Coal Ash, the former North Carolina Secretary of the Department of Environmental Quality Michael Regan and Governor Roy Cooper demanded that Duke Energy excavate the six remaining coal ash ponds on Monday, April 1st, 2019. The sites include Allen, Belews, Cliffside/Rogers, Marshall, Mayo and Roxboro facilities.
Sources of Major Decisions:
“On February 2, 2014, a release of coal ash into the Dan River occurred at the Dan River Steam Station (Duke Energy) north of Eden, N.C. creating the Eden Ash Spill Site. The Site extends approximately 70 miles downstream from the Dan River Steam Station. The Dan River watershed is home to two identified endangered species. Livestock has access to the river, and the river is used for crop irrigation. It is also a recreational water body used for subsistence fishing as well as canoeing and kayaking and is a source of drinking water to residents in North Carolina and Virginia.” (Source: Case Summary: Duke Energy Agrees to $3 Million Cleanup for Coal Ash Release in the Dan River, Weisinger,Keith, EPA, 2014, https://www.epa.gov/enforcement/case-summary-duke-energy-agrees-3-million-cleanup-coal-ash-release-dan-river.)
“Following the coal ash release earlier this year from Duke Energy’s Dan River plant and a spate of citizen suits by environmental groups, North Carolina has enacted the country’s first comprehensive coal ash management law. The statute, which took effect September 20, 2014 mandates that “high risk” ponds be closed in five years and all ponds be closed by 2029, with all closure plans subject to public comment.” (Source: North Carolina’s First-in-the-Nation Coal Ash Law Takes Effect, Breischwerdt, Brett, McGuire Woods, 2014, https://www.mcguirewoods.com/client-resources/Alerts/2014/9/North-Carolinas-First-in-the-Nation-Coal-Ash-Law)
“The North Carolina Department of Environmental Quality (DEQ) has secured the excavation of nearly 80 million tons of coal ash at six facilities in North Carolina. Under a settlement agreement with community and environmental groups and Duke Energy that ends the appeal litigation, Duke Energy will move forward with excavation plans at the Allen, Belews Creek, Cliffside, Marshall, Mayo and Roxboro sites, moving coal ash into on-site lined landfills. The excavation is the largest coal ash clean up in the nation’s history and will result in more excavation than in four neighboring states combined.” (Source: DEQ secures the nation’s largest coal ash excavation of nearly 80 million tons of coal ash, Martin, Sharon, NC DEQ, June 2, 2020, https://deq.nc.gov/news/press-releases/2020/01/02/deq-secures-nation’s-largest-coal-ash-excavation-nearly-80-million)