The Spill At Dan River In North Carolina Included Cancerous Toxins Such As Arsenic In Drinking And Fishing Water (Video)

Profits Ahead Of People

CBS News program “60 Minutes” aired a segment on Duke Energy and the company’s poor coal ash removal practices currently contaminating drinking and fishing waters in select U.S. states. The most damage has been done in north Carolina, where toxic items such as arsenic have been discovered in drinking and fishing water adjacent to Duke’s plants and their coal ash ponds. The ponds were never lined which has resulted in the coal ash contaminating soil and nearby drinking water.

Lynn Wood of Duke Energy being interviewed by Lesley Stahl of investigative news show "60 Minutes"

It is important that drinking and fishing water be kept to the highest standards of purity, as contamination with coal ash and by products such as arsenic, is cancerous. This is a prime example of corporation putting profits ahead of people. Initial government fines Duke Energy was assessed were paltry, totaling approximately $100,000. The most recent fines are approximately $100,000,000. However, it is not enough money to clean up the environmental damage that has been done.

STORY SOURCE

The Spill at Dan River 

2015 Jun 14 - Lesley Stahl reports on how Duke Energy is handling over 100 million tons of coal ash waste in North Carolina. The following is a script from "The Spill at Dan River" which aired on Dec. 7, 2014, and was rebroadcast on June 14, 2015. Lesley Stahl is the correspondent. Shachar Bar-On, producer.

Every year coal-burning power plants generate not only electricity but a staggering amount of leftover coal ash that contains heavy metals unhealthy to humans. Yet due in part to intense industry lobbying, oversight over disposal has been largely left in the hands of state officials and employees, who are often beholden to the powerful, local utility companies.

For decades coal ash was just dumped into giant pits dug by rivers and lakes, where toxins could leach into nearby water and soil. There are over 1,000 ash pits or ponds dotting the nation, many of them old, poorly monitored, all but forgotten. But as we first reported back in December, every few years we are reminded that this can lead to disaster like the coal-ash spill in February last year into North Carolina's Dan River at a power plant owned by Duke Energy, the biggest utility company in the country.

The spill at Dan River happened when a drainage pipe that ran underneath an ash basin and dam, collapsed, sucking out six decades of waste and spewing gunk directly into the river. Lynn Good: It was an accident. It didn't work the way it should have worked. It didn't meet our standards or our expectations. Duke Energy CEO Lynn Good, then only seven months on the job, had a crisis on her hands...

http://www.cbsnews.com

Men Have Hope Because The Friendzone Is Not A Permanent Situation Or Status

You're in the friend zone

The internet refers to the friendzone as a place where typically a man is romantically attracted to a woman, who only views him as a friend. Men find this frustrating and sad, especially when they have strong feelings for the woman. However, these relationships do not always remain platonic, so men have hope.

For example, in my aunt Lorna Goodison's award winning book "From Harvey River" which is about the history of our family, there is a humorous true story about how my grandparents met. My late grandmother was a beautiful woman. She had long, black curly hair, light brown eyes and an olive complexion (not to mention, big breasts, which is probably what granddad saw first LOL).

 

Wow, she's hanging her purse around his neck (LOL)

When my virginal grandmother was an of age teenager, she thought she was alone at the river running through the town her English grandfather founded and built up. She took off her dress and went swimming in the river in her underwear and bra. Custom in the town was if a male saw a woman swimming in the river alone they were not to enter. My grandpa, being a city slicker not from that town, didn't know and after she had been swimming in the river for a while, he saw her from a distance and walked up to the bank of the river (he didn't go in the river).

Then he tried to speak to her, not stating anything crude or disrespectful. And do you know what her first words were to him..."Go away!" That's not even the friendzone. That's the get-away-from-me zone (LOL). She was trying to protect her virginity and reputation.

 

People heard her complaining and the story got back to her parents, who went to him, giving him a stern talking to about it. However, shortly after they became friends, began dating, got married and brought 9 children into this world. Therefore, once again, men, don't give up. The friendzone isn't always permanent.