The Rude Pundit: Photos That Make the Rude Pundit Want to Shove a Filthy Largemouth Bass ...

[meegbear]

Up Some Energy Executive's Ass



You see that lovely body of water on the lower part of the picture? That's Sutton Lake, right near Wilmington, North Carolina, close to the Cape Fear River. It's a gorgeous reservoir that is noted for its duck hunting and largemouth bass fishing. "Sutton Lake," North Carolina Sportsman notes, "is home to one of the hottest largemouth bass fisheries North Carolina has to offer." The fish love it because the water is heated by the L.V. Sutton Steam Electric Plant, which uses natural gas to make steam to make electricity. Up until December 2013, Duke Energy, which owns the plant, created the steam by burning coal.

What does this have to do with killing animals in a pretty North Carolina "lake"? Well, the top part of the photo there? See it? That's a couple of coal ash ponds, where the waste products of all that burning coal is stored. And, yeah, there's just a few pretty damn thin earth walls between toxic waste and fishing paradise.

The people in the towns around Sutton Lake are worried because a Duke Energy-owned coal ash pond upstate on the Dan River in the ironically named town of Eden spilled about 35 million gallons of a chemical and heavy metal slurry (which, yeah, yeah, would be a great name for a band, ha, ha) into the water back on February 2. After initially telling people that the water was safe, now state and federal officials are warning people to avoid contact with the river and not to eat fish from it.

As far as fish go, at Sutton Lake, around the time that Duke was switching the plant from coal to natural gas, environmentalists discovered that selenium from the coal ash was leeching through those wispy banks and poisoning the fish, killing nearly a million and causing deformities in many more. Duke says it isn't true because what the hell else are they gonna say?

And now it seems that the groundwater has been contaminated by the seemingly uncontainable coal ash and is poisoning the water supply. Some residents of Flemington, right near the plant, have said they no longer feel safe drinking the water. Despite insisting that none of this is true, Duke has agreed to build a pipe system that gets residents water from a public system and not the wells in the ground where a plume of poison is heading.

Oh, the state of North Carolina hasn't asked Duke to take any action to prevent this from happening again. Yes, the feds are investigating the Dan River spill as a criminal act and even NC Governor Pat McCrory (campaign slogan: "What Can I Do For You, Duke?&quot has said that he wants Duke to move the ponds away from drinking water. But when it comes to Sutton Lake, &quot p)ressed by a reporter last week, state Division of Water Quality Director Tom Reeder conceded that the state was aware of the groundwater contamination leeching from Duke's dumps at Sutton and had done nothing to force the company to stop the pollution." Maybe this just isn't as glamorous a crisis as the pictures of curls of coal ash in the Dan River.

So, in 2014, large numbers of people can't drink water in two states in the greatest, most exceptionalest nation in history of everything. That seems like failure at a pretty profound level, but, of course, that demands action which might offend a job creator.

http://rudepundit.blogspot.com/2014/02/photos-that-make-rude-pundit-want-to_26.html

[daleanime]

1. K&R....

[SunSeeker]

2. Duke Executives should be forced to drink and bathe in Dan River water.

[calimary]

17. I'd sign up for that! Make 'em own it.

Same thing as with the fracking guy who's just FINE with it as long as it happens near YOUR house. But heaven forbid he has to deal with it in his own back yard!!!!! What an outrage! Unfair! Freedom-freedom!

I agree with that completely. What if there were a law that all drilling, all dumping, all strip-mining, all fracking, all oil/gas/coal production, all toxic manufacturing, and all over-development MUST be located within one mile of the company's executives' homes?

I realize it's just a pipe dream. But it's a sweet one. Taste of their own medicine. See how they like it.

[demigoddess]

3. do it once more for me,

[zeemike]

4. If he wants to shove a filthy large mouth bass up his ass.

I would volunteer to hold him down while he does it...and there would be no shortage of volunteers to help me.
The Rude One has such a way with words.

[Eleanors38]

12. Why wish such a fate on the poor bass?

[Enthusiast]

13. It would already be dead....from the coal ash.

[MindMover]

5. Ah, business as usual ... profit, profit profits ... I will shit in your water and you will drink it

[progressoid]

6. The free market will fix it.

[loudsue]

7. The Koch brothers took over NC in 2010. All republicans. No environmental protections left.

Chemicals in the groundwater, chemicals in the corn, soybeans, strawberries; fracking, coal ash...you name it. It's all turned into a republican wet dream down here.

They even instituted a FLAT TAX for our State income tax & took away all the deductions!!!!

[Auntie Bush]

8. We almost move to SC back in the early 90ies...thank God we didn't.

The Koch brothers are pure evil and will rot in hell..if there is one.
They are pure filth!

[JanMichael]

10. it's not the Kochs here

They are pure trash, but here it's one clown running things: Art Pope.

McCrory worked for Duke; they got him the job of Mayor, now he is the Gov. Puppet. It's awful. Professors are leaving UNC.

[marions ghost]

19. Oh yeah--it IS the Koch Bros hijacking NC, via Art Pope & friends

http://www.washingtonpost.com/opinions/katrina-vanden-heuvel-the-third-koch-brother-hits-north-carolina/2013/06/11/0a7b1c54-d1e5-11e2-8cbe-1bcbee06f8f8_story.html

http://www.politico.com/story/2014/02/koch-brothers-kay-hagan-103406.html

http://www.dailykos.com/story/2013/05/17/1209846/-NC-Sen-Kay-Hagan-D-Koch-Bros-have-turned-NC-into-an-experiment-in-extremist-politics#
----
From the dailykos link:

"The Koch brothers have turned North Carolina into an experiment in extremist politics.

They’re funding outside special interest groups to create, in their words, “earth shattering reform.” Here’s what I see: efforts to restrict voting rights, attacks on women’s health and higher taxes on hard-working North Carolina families.

This is only the beginning. If they succeed in North Carolina, they intend to take this model nationwide.

The president of a Koch-backed extremist organization recently told the press, “A few years ago, the idea we had was to create model states. North Carolina was a great opportunity to do that…”

These guys don’t care about North Carolinians; they want to use our state as a launching pad for a new extremist movement. It could work if we don’t stop them now."

~ Kay Hagan

[JanMichael]

9. NOT the Kochs

It's Art Pope. McCrory is just his pathetic, whiny puppet.

btw, my wife says "hi!" She still talks about you for remembering the "huge Bird" from the late sixties/ early seventies? She was "Thtwudbeme" on DU--

[loudsue]

11. Ha! Tell Thtwudbeme I send my best!

And to you, too JanMichael! I thought you were living in Florida? Where did I get that?

I remember our exchange about the huge bird. Weird you brought it up...I thought about it today for the first time in ... ages! Fancy that!

[marions ghost]

20. yes it IS the Kochs in NC

see post 19 above

[GeorgeGist]

14. Not nearly rude enough.

[Loki]

15. "Failure at a pretty profound level..."

That pretty much says it all. It's what the GOP and big business have wanted all along.

[gtar100]

16. When I hear the name 'Duke Energy', I immediately think "pollution, lies, and filthy water."

It is an organization run by a bunch of criminals.

[aquart]

18. Execs at Duke need to hang. Or be tossed in the Dan and held there.