Greg Buppert, an attorney with the Southern Environmental Law Center’s Virginia office, said the center also is investigating the Possum Point well tests.

“The bottom line is, these ponds contaminate groundwater. So it’s certainly likely they could contaminate nearby drinking water wells and it’s an issue that should be taken seriously,” he said.

“We’re still looking into whether there’s a connection between coal ash and the contamination at wells in Possum Point.”

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Potomac Riverkeeper Dean Naujoks, who spent more than two decades doing environmental work in North Carolina, including on the Dan River spill, said that, in discussions during the past year on closing Virginia’s coal ash ponds, he implored the state DEQ to get Dominion Virginia Power to pay for testing of private wells — something he considered a “very reasonable ask.”

“I just thought this response from the state was really inadequate,” he said. “They don’t really have a strategy, and it’s because Dominion doesn’t want them to have a strategy. ... We’re talking about peoples’ lives and their property values and public health.”