COLUMBIA, S.C. — A utility company in South Carolina has finished removing all the coal ash from the site of a nearly 50-year-old power plant on the Wateree River.
Dominion Energy announced earlier this month it finished the project at the Wateree Station east of Columbia more than a year ahead of schedule. The project started in 2012 and removed 7 billion pounds of the toxic byproduct from burning coal to create power from pits without protective liners.
Arsenic from the ash was leaking into groundwater. But now the Southern Environmental Law Center says arsenic levels in nearby groundwater are down at least 90%.