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“The state wants to monitor water leaking from a coal ash basin into a Robeson County swamp, but environmental groups are asking regulators to make Duke Energy seal the three ‘seeps’ at a former plant.”

The plant closed in 2011, and Duke Energy plans to dry out the 2.5 million tons of coal ash left. They will then take it to a storage site in Lee County. While the department plans to monitor the seeps, as per the draft permit, the Winyah River Foundation demands that the seeps be stopped altogether, claiming they are illegal.

Duke Energy says that this will be the first time that the seeps will be regulated and the permit provides the framework to treat water and leads to an effective way to reduce or eliminate the seeps.