North Carolina Chief state epidemiologist Megan Davies just resigned from her position in protest of Governor Pat McCrory’s administration. She believes McCrory, who was an employee of Duke Energy for 29 years, is responsible for “deliberately misleading the public” about the toxicity levels of the drinking wells near Duke Energy power plants.
“I cannot work for a department and an administration that deliberately misleads the public,” Davies wrote.
This is an important environmental politics story that should be getting much more national attention: https://t.co/2AiqgrdLqt #CoalAsh
— David Konisky (@DavidKonisky) August 16, 2016
Duke Energy’s power plants store toxic coal ash under the ground. This coal ash contaminates the groundwater, which is used for public drinking. Duke Energy denied the coal ash toxins were the cause of the contaminated drinking water incident. McCrory and his administration pressured Davies into declaring over 400 homes safe before they really were.
“The overall picture it painted was that public health in North Carolina whether state or local is done arbitrarily and unprofessionally, and that completely undermines the public confidence in that system” said a frustrated Davies in a statement about how public officials attempted to portray her office as having “over-reacted” by saying the water was unsafe to drink.
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