State regulators are concerned about another leaking pipe at a Duke Energy coal ash dump, this time in western North Carolina.The state Department of Environment and Natural Resources said Friday that groundwater is trickling from a pipe at the Cliffside Steam Station in Rutherford County. The pipe drains an emergency storm water basin built on top of an old coal ash dump.Duke staff is sampling the potentially contaminated groundwater coming from the pipe for toxic metals. The pipe drains into rocks adjacent to the Broad River, but the agency says there is no indication the flow has reached the waterway.The issue at Cliffside comes about four weeks after a similar pipe collapsed at Duke's plant in Eden, coating 70 miles of the Dan River in toxic sludge.

State regulators are concerned about another leaking pipe at a Duke Energy coal ash dump, this time in western North Carolina.

The state Department of Environment and Natural Resources said Friday that groundwater is trickling from a pipe at the Cliffside Steam Station in Rutherford County. The pipe drains an emergency storm water basin built on top of an old coal ash dump.


Duke staff is sampling the potentially contaminated groundwater coming from the pipe for toxic metals. The pipe drains into rocks adjacent to the Broad River, but the agency says there is no indication the flow has reached the waterway.

The issue at Cliffside comes about four weeks after a similar pipe collapsed at Duke's plant in Eden, coating 70 miles of the Dan River in toxic sludge.