"Duke Energy, North Carolina’s largest utility, has been ordered to submit a post-flood plan for the storage ponds at one coal-fired power plant, after reports surfaced of coal ash residue contaminating a local waterway.

After flooding from Hurricane Matthew earlier this month, Duke initially told ThinkProgress that any overflow from its coal ash storage ponds was not “significant.” Then, last week, the company admitted to the state that “an unknown amount of coal ash” had been discharged.

On Wednesday, Waterkeeper Alliance, a local watchdog organization, published pictures of “a substantial but undetermined amount of coal ash” along the Neuse River in southwestern North Carolina. The following day, the state responded."

Samantha Page reports for Think Progress October 21, 2016. [2]