September 4, 2025
Toxic Coal Ash in North Carolina: Addressing Coal Plants’ Hazardous Legacy
For many decades, utilities dumped billions of tons of coal ash — the toxic substance left after burning coal — in unlined ponds, landfills, and mines where the toxic pollution leaks into water and soil.
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Across the U.S., immense coal ash dumps are leaking hazardous chemicals including arsenic, chromium, lead, lithium, radium, and other heavy metals, which have been linked to numerous types of cancer, heart and thyroid disease, respiratory illness, reproductive failure, and neurological harm. In addition to those well-known health threats, in 2023, the Environmental Protection Agency acknowledged that coal ash contains levels of arsenic and radiation that pose cancer risks.
Coal ash remains one of our nation’s largest toxic industrial waste streams. U.S. coal plants continue to produce approximately 70 million tons every year. Coal ash is disproportionately located in low-income communities and communities of color.
Industry’s own data indicate that across the country almost all coal plants are polluting water above federal safe drinking water standards.
Despite regulations established a decade ago, the coal industry has failed to comply with federal safeguards and uses deceptive tactics to avoid cleaning up its coal ash.
Because of industry’s widespread violations of coal ash regulations, in 2023, the EPA ramped up enforcement after designating coal ash a national enforcement priority. The EPA reports that many plants are illegally closing coal ash ponds with toxic ash sitting in groundwater, threatening drinking water and the health of nearby residents.
The longer industry delays, the more toxic waste enters our water, and the more difficult cleanup becomes. But the coal industry is asking Trump’s EPA to let them off the hook.
Action Needed
Federal coal ash protections established in 2015 and 2024 require monitoring, closure, and cleanup of the more than 1,000 coal ash dumps across the country. Cleaning up coal ash now will not only prevent another billion-dollar catastrophic failure, it will preserve drinking water; protect rivers, streams, and lakes; and allow safe redevelopment of power plant sites.
The magnitude of harm from recklessly dumped toxic coal ash requires decisive action from federal and state regulators:
- Power companies must be required to comply with the law and immediately clean up their pollution, including removing any coal ash in contact with groundwater.
- When power companies retire coal plants, they must clean up their toxic mess and leave communities with sites that benefit rather than harm their health, environment, and economy.
- EPA and states must prohibit the use of coal ash as a substitute for clean soil in construction (known as structural fill), especially in residential areas, and ensure cleanup of areas where ash was used as fill.
Click on plant locations on the map to see industry reports
Coal Ash in North Carolina
| Asheville | Duke Energy | 2 pond(s) | None estimated | 2,262,182 | Boron (x5), Cobalt (x17), Radium 226+228 (x14), Sulfate (x2) | NC-11 (Chuck Edwards) |
| Belews Creek | Duke Energy | 1 pond(s), 2 landfill(s), and 3 potential ash dump(s) | 3 potential ash dump(s) | 14,829,288 | Arsenic (x5), Beryllium (x1), Boron (x7), Cobalt (x40), Lithium (x24), Molybdenum (x8), Radium 226+228 (x1) | NC-05 (Virginia Foxx) |
| Brickhaven No. 2 Mine Tract "A" | Green Meadow, LLC | 1 landfill(s) | None estimated | 7,215,909 | Lithium (x3) | NC-09 (Richard Hudson) |
| Buck | Duke Energy | 3 pond(s) | None estimated | 5,418,533 | Boron (x1), Cobalt (x12), Lithium (x7), Molybdenum (x1), Sulfate (x1) | NC-06 (Addison McDowell) |
| Cape Fear | Duke Energy | 4 legacy pond(s) | 4 legacy pond(s) | 3,402,520 | 2014 EPA report found evidence of Lead, Chromium, Iron, Manganese, and Boron contamination | NC-09 (Richard Hudson) |
| Cliffside | Duke Energy | 3 pond(s), 1 landfill(s) | None estimated | 8,453,222 | Arsenic (x9), Beryllium (x2), Boron (x1), Cobalt (x38), Radium 226+228 (x1), Selenium (x1), Sulfate (x1), Thallium (x1) | NC-14 (Timothy K. Moore) |
| Dan River | Duke Energy | 2 pond(s), 1 landfill(s), and 1 potential ash dump(s) | 1 potential ash dump(s) | 2,620,125 | Arsenic (x3), Cobalt (x1), Lithium (x3) | NC-05 (Virginia Foxx) |
| G G Allen | Duke Energy | 2 pond(s), 1 landfill(s), and 1 potential ash dump(s) | 1 potential ash dump(s) | 15,149,468 | Arsenic (x7), Beryllium (x6), Boron (x1), Cadmium (x1), Cobalt (x466), Lithium (x12), Selenium (x5), Sulfate (x3), Thallium (x1) | NC-14 (Timothy K. Moore) |
| Halifax County Ash Landfill | Halifax County Government | 1 landfill(s) | None estimated | 954,000 | Beryllium at unsafe levels. See Ashtracker. | NC-01 (Donald Davis) |
| L.V.Sutton | Duke Energy | 2 pond(s), 1 landfill(s) | None estimated | 3,876,762 | Arsenic (x44), Boron (x2), Cobalt (x4), Lithium (x13), Molybdenum (x7) | NC-07 (David Rouzer) |
| Lee | Duke Energy | 1 pond(s), and 4 potential ash dump(s) | 4 potential ash dump(s) | 4,368,096 | Arsenic (x61), Boron (x2), Cobalt (x4), Lithium (x9), Molybdenum (x2) | NC-01 (Donald Davis) |
| Lumberton | Georgia Renewable Power, LLC | 1 likely inactive pond(s) | None estimated | No data yet | No groundwater data reported | NC-08 (Mark Harris) |
| Marshall | Duke Energy | 1 pond(s), 1 landfill(s), and 2 potential ash dump(s) | 2 potential ash dump(s) | 16,886,287 | Arsenic (x5), Barium (x1), Beryllium (x1), Boron (x5), Cobalt (x22), Lithium (x2), Radium 226+228 (x2), Thallium (x1) | NC-10 (Pat Harrigan) |
| Mayo | Duke Energy | 3 pond(s), 1 landfill(s) | None estimated | 6,473,662 | Arsenic (x1), Boron (x3), Cobalt (x3), Lithium (x9), Molybdenum (x2), Radium 226+228 (x2) | NC-13 (Brad Knott) |
| Riverbend | Duke Energy | 2 legacy pond(s) | 2 legacy pond(s) | Volume reporting not required | Manganese at unsafe levels. See Ashtracker. | NC-14 (Timothy K. Moore) |
| Roxboro | Duke Energy | 5 pond(s), 1 landfill(s) | None estimated | 40,208,742 | Arsenic (x2), Boron (x27), Cobalt (x6), Lithium (x29), Molybdenum (x56), Radium 226+228 (x1), Selenium (x3), Sulfate (x7) | NC-13 (Brad Knott) |
| W.H. Weatherspoon | Duke Energy | 1 pond(s) | None estimated | 1,510,000 | Boron (x1), Radium 226+228 (x3) | NC-07 (David Rouzer) |
* Total volume of coal ash reported as of 2021 for ponds and landfills regulated under the 2015 Coal Ash Rule, and as of 2024 for legacy ponds at power plants that retired before October 2015. This volume does not include any of the potential ash dumps that will begin reporting in 2026.
** Parentheticals indicate magnitude of exceedance above federal health-based guidelines for drinking water based on industry data and analysis described in the report, Poisonous Coverup. See summaries of EPA reports.
Massive quantities of toxic coal ash are stored at 17 power plant sites in North Carolina.
Utilities in North Carolina have been monitoring 26 unlined coal ash ponds and 11 landfills at 13 coal plants. Those coal ash dumps alone contain more than 130 million cubic yards of toxic coal ash. That’s equivalent to a football field piled more than 11 miles high with coal ash — twice the height of Mount Everest.
In addition, seven of the 17 power plant sites include an estimated 17 older coal ash dumps that industry is only beginning to quantify and monitor under the safeguards established by the 2024 Legacy Coal Ash Rule.
For all but one power plant with data available, monitoring has revealed groundwater contamination above federal safe drinking water standards. At the remaining plant site, groundwater contains unsafe levels of coal ash pollutants, but the existing monitoring cannot yet determine the specific source.
At the Lumberton plant, Georgia Renewable Power, LLC, failed to report on a possible inactive coal ash pond, in potential violation of the law.
For More Information
Christine Santillana, Senior Legislative Counsel, Earthjustice, csantillana@earthjustice.org
Lisa Evans, Senior Counsel, Earthjustice, levans@earthjustice.org.
About the Map
- EPA’s first coal ash regulations, issued in 2015, covered only some coal ash dumps, exempting older ponds and landfills at current and former coal plant sites.
- In 2024, EPA extended federal monitoring and cleanup requirements to hundreds of previously excluded older coal ash landfills and ponds leaking toxic pollution into groundwater and surface water. Industry is now required to monitor those older dump sites, filing initial reports on so-called ‘legacy’ ponds at former coal plants in 2024.
- In 2026, industry will be required to report on additional dump sites at operating power plants that did not receive ash after Oct. 19, 2015. Groundwater monitoring requirements are not yet in effect for these newly regulated dumps, so the table below may lack specific information about the number of units and the extent of contamination at a particular site.
More on Coal Ash in North Carolina
- Poisonous Coverup: The Widespread Failure of the Power Industry to Clean Up Coal Ash Dumps (November 3, 2022)
- What a Real Coal Ash Cleanup Looks Like (April 8, 2019)
- Along With Flooding, Hurricane Florence Unleashes Toxic Coal Ash (September 21, 2018)
- A Coal Ash Clean Up Job Not Well Done! (July 23, 2014)
- NC Regulators Ding Duke for a Penny Per Toxic Ton (February 24, 2014)
- North Carolina Coal Ash Pollution and the Frankenbill (June 24, 2013)
- Tr-Ash Talk: Clean Up Your Coal Ash! (May 2, 2012)
Coal Ash in States, Territories, Regions
Puerto Rico (En Español)
Earthjustice fights in the courts for a long-term solution to the toxic menace of coal ash. And we act on behalf of dozens of clients and over 100 coalition partners to defeat legislative attempts to subvert federally enforceable safeguards of coal ash.
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