John Boyle

jboyle@citizen-times.com

Today’s batch of burning questions, my smart-aleck answers and the real deal:

Question: I see these trucks hauling coal ash all of the time in my travels. A crap load. All between Long Shoals Road and into the upstate of South Carolina. How many times a day? How much money per load? Where are they taking the ash? How much is just this portion going to cost the average user? How many loads total do they think?

My answer: Man, I would not want to see the facilities in your house if a tractor-trailer equals a poop-load.

Real answer: As we all probably know by now, Duke Energy's Lake Julian Power Plant has two large coal ash basins on the property. The utility is emptying them, and the trucks are part of the process.

"Because of state deadlines for closing coal ash basins, we are having to consider many safe options for final storage solutions," said Duke Energy spokeswoman Danielle Peoples. "We have already excavated more than 4 million tons of ash from the Asheville site, most of which was reused in a structural fill project at the Asheville Regional Airport. With the airport project completed, we began a trucking operation to a fully lined landfill in Homer, Georgia. last year to continue making progress toward the state deadline of 2022, and prepare for the new natural gas plant that will be built at the Asheville plant site on the ash basin footprint once it is excavated."

Duke is "nearing completion" on emptying one entire ash basin at Lake Julian.

"Another 3.4 million tons of ash in the second basin will be moved by the 2022 deadline," Peoples said.

The trucks transporting the ash go through a truck wash system, have tightly fitted tarps, and are monitored for speed and driving safety, she added.

"We are currently averaging over 100 truck trips a day, and we are committed to continuing to operate the transportation project with our contractors safely," Peoples said.

Duke has a fact sheet on the Asheville plant at www.duke-energy.com/pdfs/SafeBasinClosureUpdate_Asheville.pdf

Regarding costs, Peoples did not provide actual dollar figures, saying she did "not have specifics to share yet as it relates directly to this project."

"We capture our estimate in an asset retirement obligation, or ARO," Peoples said. "An ARO is a standard accounting mechanism that allows us to estimate costs at a point in time to share with investors, regulators and the public."

Duke provides this to state and federal regulators.

"As we spend money during the closure process, expenses are accounted and the ARO is adjusted," she said. "The ARO is also adjusted as new information is gained and estimates are revised."

I think the upshot is that cost figures will be forthcoming.

Question: With all the hubbub about Raleigh’s plans to impose district elections on Asheville, it got me to thinking: Didn’t Asheville used to have district elections? I’ve been here 18 years, and it seems like the city had elections by district back then? How long has the current at-large system been in place? And why was it changed to an at-large system?

My answer: Just to bother Tom Apodaca.

Real answer: Trena Parker, director of the Buncombe County Board of Elections, said at-large elections have been around in Asheville for a long, long time.

"All of the charter documents that are here at Election Services provide for at-large seats," Parker said. "Looks like the charter was adopted in the 1930s."

Maggie Burleson, clerk to Asheville City Council, said her research shows at-large elections go back "to at least 1931." The city did have a ward system before that, though.

"I found that between 1909 and 1923 the city went from at-large to ward elections," Burleson said.

Generally speaking, the idea with at-large elections is that representatives are less beholden to their neighborhoods and more evenly represent city needs.

This is the opinion of John Boyle. To submit a question, contact him at 232-5847 or jboyle@citizen-times.com