Experts Debate Lifespan of Duke Energy’s Coal Ash Liners

Charlotte Observer

The public anxiety over entombing coal ash in Lee and Chatham counties comes down to this: a sheet of plastic that’s no thicker than two credit cards stuck together.

That’s the thickness of the plastic liners that will be installed in two landfills to safeguard the environment from the nasty stew contained within. The coal ash heading to Lee and Chatham counties is laced with arsenic, lead, selenium and other heavy metals.

According to the company building the landfills, the plastic liners are virtually indestructible and will last more than 500 years. That prediction comes from Duke Energy’s landfill construction firm, Kentucky-based Charah, in a recent filing with the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers.

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