Mooresville to buy and clean up toxic coal ash site along busy Lake Norman highway

Mooresville plans to buy and clean up a longtime toxic coal ash site along busy N.C. 150 just east of Interstate 77 exit 36, Mayor Chris Carney said Wednesday night.

“The Town is taking a leadership position on this critical issue,” Carney said in a statement after a closed meeting of the Mooresville Board of Commissioners.

Officials in Mooresville had not publicly talked about the site in recent years, but the mayor said he and new town board members who were seated in January wanted to address the issue. The property owner had been unable to resolve the coal ash problem on the site, so the town wanted to take over the property and get it cleaned up.

Town officials called the special meeting to discuss resolving “the long-standing problem” of coal ash at the former Tire Masters site at 190 West Plaza Drive (N.C. 150 East), Carney said.

The town is negotiating with the property owners to buy the site “as a necessary first step to clean up the site,” according to the statement.

That will enable the town to apply for state and federal assistance, Carney said.

Mooresville also has hired “a third-party, independent group” to test a stream at the site, according to Carney’s statement. “That testing is currently underway,” he said.

Cleanup will begin this summer and take three months, Carney said at a news conference Thursday.

20-foot sinkhole

The stream flows into Lake Norman, The Charlotte Observer reported in 2020, when a 20-foot-deep sinkhole emerged at the site during heavy rains.

Lake Norman supplies the town’s drinking water, Carney said, and the town routinely monitors the water for contaminants.

At Thursday’s news conference, Carney said taxpayers would not be on the hook for the cost of buying and and cleaning up the property because grants will cover the town’s costs. The mayor said Duke Energy has agreed to remove the coal ash.

“Duke (Energy) will move forward with restoring the stream back to its water quality,” Carney said. “We’re testing the stream at the site. Our promise is that we will not stop until the quality of the stream is back to its original integrity.”

Work will cost at least $1 million and no more than $2 million, Carney later told the Observer. He said the town doesn’t know how much coal ash is in and around the creek at the sinkhole but will determine that in the months ahead.

Carney blamed the sinkhole on faulty installation of a storm drainage pipe decades ago on the private land. No records exist that identify the installer, he said. The property owners, whom Carney identified as members of the local Medford family, are not to blame, the mayor said.

Chris Medford, who owned the tire shop at the site for 28 years, fought tears when he briefly spoke at Thursday’s news conference about how thankful he was to his many loyal customers over the years.

State’s role at coal ash site

In 2020, North Carolina environmental officials investigated the release of sediment containing coal ash from the re-emerged sinkhole, the Observer reported at the time.

The N.C. Department of Environmental Quality knew about the sinkhole and had been monitoring it since July 2019, according to a department news release in 2020 announcing that the sinkhole had reappeared.

The sinkhole was in a parking lot outside of the tire and auto-repair shop.

“The parking lot is built on a documented coal ash structural fill,” officials said in the 2020 release, adding that the property owner previously repaired it in 2018 and 2019.

On Thursday, DEQ spokeswoman Laura Oleniacz told the Observer that the department “will continue to exercise regulatory authority over the site.”

Past actions have included, according to Oleniacz:

▪ A notice of violation on Sept. 29, 2020, for an unpermitted discharge of a coal ash material and sediment from the Tire Masters site into an unnamed tributary of Lake Norman.

The division at the time required the property owner create a plan for removing the coal ash and material from the stream and addressing the sinkhole.

▪ On Dec. 21, 2020, a notice of regulatory requirements advising a nearby property owner of legal requirements under North Carolina law.

▪ On Sept. 29, 2022, a continuing notice of violation for unpermitted discharge into the Lake Norman tributary.

▪ And, on Sept. 29, 2022, a notice of regulatory requirements to staff of the N.C. Department of Transportation, town of Mooresville, Duke Energy and an additional property owner.

No penalties have been assessed in those violations, Oleniacz said.

“DEQ continues to work with all parties involved toward a resolution of this issue,” she said.

No impact to highway widening, NCDOT says

The site also is near where construction will start next year on the $269 million widening of a 15-mile stretch of N.C. 150 in the Lake Norman area.

“NCDOT is aware of this issue and pleased to know the town of Mooresville is working with the property owner to safely remove any remaining coal ash,” NCDOT spokeswoman Jennifer Goodwin said in an email to the Observer.

“These efforts will not impact the Department’s planned project to widen N.C. 150 or any project-related work near this property,” Goodwin said.