Coal Ash May Enter Cape Fear River in Wake of Damage Caused by Hurricane Florence
BLACKWELL: Hurricane Florence is still making a big mess in the Carolinas. Flood waters have triggered a dam breach at a power plant. This is Wilmington, North Carolina. It could be spilling coal ash into the Cape Fear River.</s>GALLAGHER: CNN correspondent Kaylee Hartung has been on this story since before the hurricane came. She's in Wilmington now with more details. Kaylee, what can you tell us about the situation there?</s>KAYLEE HARTUNG, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Hi, Dianne and Victor. Environmentalists fear that coal ash is entering the Cape Fear River. But Duke Energy who owns the natural gas plant that's home to two inactive coal basins says that's probably not the case, at least not yet. And that's the problem we are facing. At this point we don't yet understand the full extent of danger the people of Wilmington are in. So it was Thursday when the waters of the Cape Fear River first flooded into a cooling lake on this natural gas plant's property which was formerly a coal burning power plant. And then Friday we first learned of the breach of the dam, several breaches. I should say, the video we can show you now of this power plant was taken before the dam was breached. And so now the question is how long will it take for the coal ash basin to begin flooding into the cooling lake as well. Right now Duke Energy says there's no visible sign of coal ash in that cooling lake. We have seen helicopters overhead all morning long, monitoring the site. They tell us there are water samples being taken. Those will take days before they're back. But again, at this time Duke Energy says there's no visible coal ash in that cooling lake. But again, this is such an on-going situation, a fluid situation literally, if you will, and extent of damage people could be facing, especially downstream from the river, is not yet known. Coal ash is one of the largest forms of industrial waste, and its impact and harm could be tremendous.</s>BLACKWELL: So you're in North Carolina. Let's go to the Waccamaw River and flood waters in South Carolina. They spilled over into an ash pond at a separate power plant I understand.</s>HARTUNG: Right. Similar but different situations between Wilmington and Conway, South Carolina. At 9:00 a.m. this morning, we learned that flooding Waccamaw River had overtaken a dike at what was known as Grainger Generating Station site. This a Santee Cooper Power Company area. And they say there's no significant environmental impact at this time. But again, a very fluid situation. The danger of coal ash getting into a river and the ways in which humans can come in contact with it, obviously such a precursor to the impacts that people could feel. But these are two very serious situations that both states say they have their environmental agencies monitoring, whether it be overhead, visually, water sampling, drones are involved, helicopters are involved. These are very sensitive situations that are being monitored very carefully on a state and local level.</s>GALLAGHER: Kaylee Hartung in Wilmington, North Carolina, thank you for your dedication to this story.</s>BLACKWELL: Let's go to Texas where we know they love football, they love the tailgating.</s>GALLAGHER: And, as you said, Coy Wire. He is experiencing it all for us in Austin.</s>COY WIRE, CNN SPORTS CORRESPONDENT: Here in Austin, the University of Texas, the Longhorns, taking on number 17 TCU. It's game day, baby. We have your sports coming up on CNN newsroom after the break.