Dear Editor Smith,

As a resident of Concord, I am literally surrounded by coal ash ponds and was initially thrilled to see a column written about them. In the aftermath of the vote on HB630, a stalling measure disguised as cleanup, the work that groups like Environment North Carolina do to educate the public about the real harm that Gov. Pat McCrory’s administration and Duke Energy are doing by not cleaning up coal ash ponds is especially important. Needless to say, I was disappointed when I read further into the column and found that Ortiz supports Duke Energy’s stalling measures, but I was not surprised.

For centuries, corporate polluters have employed a method known as “spill, study, stall”, in which the polluter wreaks havoc on the environment, hires “independent” scientists and officials to back up claims that the polluter has done no harm, and continues to operate business and environmental degradation as normal. This is what Duke Energy has done. Remember, McCrory worked for Duke Energy for 28 years.