On the morning of day-five of the Dan River coal ash spill, I emailed Duke Energy spokeswoman Lisa Hoffman this list of questions. The answers are from her.

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Here are some of the questions I’ve got this morning:

Has the pipe been fixed yet?

No. A construction team is creating stable surface near the break so that a permanent plug can be built.

Has the spill been stopped yet?

The volume of ash is decreasing each day and it is intermittent and low. In addition, the water is clearer as the rain has stopped and the ash has settled again.

The corrugated metal you all found – is it corroded? Did it “collapse,” as the New York Times reported?

We will conduct a complete investigation and provide more details as they become available.

There’s word on the street that the spill began before Sunday afternoon. Do you have any information about that?

The spill was discovered on Sunday afternoon.

What is Duke Energy learning as it works to repair the pipe and stop the spill? Yesterday we learned the pipe isn’t straight, as depicted in images from Duke Energy, and it’s made up of corrugated metal and concrete; so what else have you learned?

We will conduct a complete investigation and provide more details as they become available.

People keep asking me why Duke Energy doesn’t take this opportunity to clean up the Dan River ponds – meaning, excavate and landfill the ash; so why doesn’t Duke Energy do that?

We will rely on science to close ash basins in a way that protects groundwater long-term and is prudent for customers and plant neighbors. Site-specific engineering studies to determine the most appropriate closure method for the basins at our retired coal plants each are well under way.

Please clarify when and where – exactly – Duke Energy began collecting water samples.

The results are what’s important here. Results from Tuesday afternoon show that levels of trace metals such as arsenic, lead and selenium were less than two parts per billion at the Danville and South Boston, VA water intakes. This is the lowest level lab instruments can accurately measure.

I’m sure I’ll think of more once I ingest some caffeine.

Thanks, Lisa.

Rhiannon Fionn

(704) 577-0817

rhi@coalashchronicles.com

Independent journalist and the creator of Coal Ash Chronicles, a film about America’s second-largest and mostly unregulated waste stream.

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