File photo Coal ash is piled for storage in a landfill. Duke Energy has listed the Anson County Landfill as a prospective site for coal ash disposal. -

An environmental group told county commissioners this month that dumping coal ash from Duke Energy’s coal-fired power plants into the Anson County Landfill could contaminate the soil and make residents sick.

Denise Lee and Cary Rodgers apprised commissioners of their concern that coal ash will negatively affect the county and surrounding areas during the board’s Feb. 2 meeting.

“The landfill in Polkton is wanting to take this coal ash and it’s a very toxic, toxic waste that also can be radioactive,” Lee said. “Now, they want to bring it in by rail, which alone also causes a problem and is a threat through the dispersion in the air and everything with the dust and all from these rail cars.”

Anson was identified as an alternate disposal site for coal ash if space was unavailable in Lee or Chatham counties. In October, Duke Energy began dumping 12 million tons of coal ash into a former Chatham County clay mine.

Lee said she believes Duke Energy wants to send the coal ash to locations off of Duke’s property because it “dilutes their liability.”

Ash particles are not only toxic, but can easily be inhaled and cause health problems for county residents, Lee said.

“So who ends up in the future taking liability for this ash?” Lee said. “It’ll be Anson County citizens. Because when this landfill closes, the contamination stays there.”

Lee also said that the landfill is not equipped to handle toxic leachate she believes will be an issue even if a holding pond is used, since ponds can eventually leak.

“You’re looking at water contamination, you’re looking at property values, you’re looking at air pollution, and it’s really a dangerous thing to let happen here,” Lee said.

Although she blamed Duke for picking Anson as an “easy target,” Lee said some responsibility will belong to the county commissioners.

“When it comes down to it, the county’s position is you’re supposed to protect us, not Duke,” Lee said.

Rodgers echoed Lee’s thoughts.

“They’re talking about putting it in ponds, but you know, those ponds leak out when it rains,” Rodgers said. “It leads to creeks and things like that, which leads to the river.”

Commissioner Jim Sims voiced his concern with the threat of water pollution.

“That creek that’s below the landfill is the largest and the main creek in Anson County and it leads into the Pee Dee (River),” Sims said. “Guess where it goes in? Right above where we take the water out.”

Rodgers said the “toxic soup” of leachate is often treated by wastewater plants and dumped into the river, which he has concerns with. He said leaving it in containment ponds is worse since the leachate is not treated at all.

Rodgers gave commissioners a copy of a resolution another county made condemning the coal ash, and said that Pee Dee WALL has written a resolution, as well.

The commissioners made no immediate decision on the subject.

ANIMAL SHELTER

Chris and Robin Sanford asked commissioners to devote more resources to the county animal shelter.

The Sanfords are regular volunteers with the shelter; Chris Sanford has logged more than 100 volunteer hours there just since Christmas.

Chris Sanford said that the shelter has a list of problems, including its animal intake system, documentation, maintenance, high kill ratios and more.

Robin Sanford echoed his concerns, adding that there are outside rescue groups that are willing to assist the shelter.

“We don’t have to reinvent the wheel,” she said. “All we’ve got to do is take all of this that everybody’s handing us and put it into motion.”

Ben Kane, the county’s director of environmental health, is over the animal shelter.

He told commissioners that he is actively working on solutions for the shelter, and is getting a new computer and updating an old one.

Board Chairwoman Anna Baucom acknowledged Kane’s efforts, but said the county needs to quickly solve the issue. Once the shelter opened, Baucom said, the county “stepped back” from it.

“That was not fair to those charged with managing it, and it’s not fair most of all to the 93 percent of the animals that have been euthanized,” Baucom said. “I’m stepping up to participate in the management team.”

County health director Dr. Fred Thompson requested that the county add positions for the shelter.

The county houses 100 animals and is nearly always filled. Although the county brings in about 100 animals each month, only an average of 10 per month are adopted, giving the shelter a euthanasia rate of more than 90 percent.

Taking care of, cleaning up after and helping adopt out so many animals is too much for the current staff, Thompson said. The shelter has a full-time director and two part-time employees. Two full-time animal control officers are often out in the field.

Thompson asked that the county either hire two more part-time employees or give the part-time employees full-time positions. He also requested a full-time receptionist, who would also act as the adoption coordinator, and that employees be available to work weekends to keep the shelter open.

“I just don’t think it’s rational for me to expect a four-hour-a-day worker to clean for 70 animals,” he said. “It’s just not hardly possible.”

The shelter’s lack of clerical support has also caused issues. The part-time employees and animal control officers are normally cleaning kennels or out in the field, while the director is often giving shots or performing other tasks. That often leaves the front desk unmanned with no one available to greet guests or work with animal rescue groups.

A paid staff member needs to be present all day, every day to help volunteers who are willing to help with the work but are not allowed access when no employees are working, Thompson said.

Thompson stressed the urgency of his request.

“We desperately need to use volunteers better than we have in the past, but I really need enough paid staff to meet the minimum daily operating conditions that we have seven days a week,” Thompson said. “If I don’t get those two part-time shelter workers some help, I’m probably going to lose both of them.”

Commissioner Jim Sims urged the board to action.

“The animal shelter needs some help,” he said. “It’s obvious. They need all kinds of help. They could use four or five people. Surely we could do a little something to help them.”

Baucom said the board does need to do something, though she said the county could not just produce the money immediately to hire employees.

“We do need to move on this, and incrementally improve the pool of people to help manage the shelter and the resources,” Baucom said. “We need someone at that intake, and I would think that the prime time for adoptions of animals would be over the weekend. So we need to have some way to staff the shelter on the weekend. It irritates, it makes me mad, that every time I go to Tractor Supply on a weekend and they’ve got dogs and cats over there from Union and Richmond County. They need to be our animals that they’re trying to help get adopted.”

Sims spoke up, still pushing for action.

“Go down there and watch those dogs die,” he said. “Go watch those 50 or 60 of them be euthanized. Go watch it.”

The board did not make any immediate decisions on the staffing situation. It did create a committee to look into the Sanfords’ complaint and asked for monthly committee reports beginning in March.

SPEED ENFORCEMENT

Truett Wright asked the commissioners to allow the sheriff’s office to hire more deputies to enforce speed limits.

Wright said he often sees trucks speeding along Anson’s highways and that he rarely passes a deputy on those stretches. He said the sheriff told him there were not enough deputies to properly patrol the county.

“Let’s give the sheriff what he needs to hire deputies to put them out in the rural areas for trucks,” Wright said.

Wright said he has noticed that many of the trucks he sees speeding are from outside Anson County and are passing through on their way to other destinations. He said their unchecked speeding will eventually lead to the death of a child or other victim.

The board will hold the public hearing on the conditional-use permit for ATR Wrecker Service at 5:30 p.m. on Feb. 22 in its meeting room.

The commissioners’ next regular meeting will be 6 p.m. March 1 in the meeting room on the second floor of the Anson County Government Center.

Reach reporter Imari Scarbrough at 704-994-5471 and follow her on Twitter @ImariScarbrough.

File photo Coal ash is piled for storage in a landfill. Duke Energy has listed the Anson County Landfill as a prospective site for coal ash disposal. https://ansonrecord.com/wp-content/uploads/2016/02/web1_coal20ash20landfill-2.jpg File photo Coal ash is piled for storage in a landfill. Duke Energy has listed the Anson County Landfill as a prospective site for coal ash disposal.