"Duke Energy, the largest electric utility in the US, has agreed to provide dozens of families in North Carolina with bottled water after state testing found private wells near sites where the company stores coal waste contaminated with potentially toxic chemicals.

Over the last week, the state’s department of environment and natural resources mailed out 87 letters to residents who live near sites where Duke has stored tons of coal ash – the toxic slurry left over from burning coal – in unlined pits. Those letters say that chemicals associated with coal ash – including vanadium, which can cause respiratory problems, as well as carcinogens such as hexavalent chromium had been found at levels that exceed state standards.

'In order to reduce or eliminate this increased health risk, the North Carolina Division of Public Health recommends that your well water not be used for drinking and cooking,' the letters read."

Peter Moskowitz reports for the Guardian April 28, 2015. [2]