News

Neuse Riverkeeper Samantha Krop continues to track the impacts of the construction of the Moriah Energy Center in Person County with the help of surrounding community members.

(For background on the Moriah Energy Center, read this article.)

• Dominion has recently cleared 70 acres of the MEC site, and impacts to creeks flowing near or through the property are being seen.
• While Dominion claims to be a good neighbor, at least three separate headwater streams flowing off the site and into Deep Creek, the Flat River and Lake Michie downstream are clearly being impacted by sediment pollution, which negatively affects both water quality and aquatic species.
• Deep Creek is a critical habitat area for the endangered Triangle Floater mussel. Deep Creek is less than two miles downstream from the construction site.
• Further downstream is the critical habitat area for the federally threatened Neuse River Waterdog salamander and several other endangered and threatened mussel species.
• All of these streams flow into Lake Michie, which is the primary drinking-water reservoir for Durham.
• A recent turbidity reading in a receiving stream was over 700NTU, many times the state standard.
• In just the past week (May 7-14), many community members who live around the MEC footprint reported dirty water in their backyard creeks, which flow off of the Dominion facility’s property. Locals know this dirty water it is NOT normal for these creeks and captured the difference in color between dirty creeks running off Dominion’s property and clean creeks that flow from elsewhere.

DOWNLOAD MORIAH ENERGY CENTER TALKING POINTS HERE.

The photos below show sediment-fillled streams flowing from the Moriah Energy Center property.