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North Carolina river swirls with gray muck near flooded coal ash dump

In this screen grab from a Sept. 21, 2018, video provided to The Associated Press by Earthjustice, an environmental advocacy group, a turtle is plucked from gray muck along the Cape Fear River near the L.V. Sutton Plant near Wilmington, N.C. Floodwaters breached a dam at the electricity generating plant on Friday and overtopped a coal ash dump, potentially spilling toxic materials into the river. (Peter Harrison/Earthjustice via AP)
In this screen grab from a Sept. 21, 2018, video provided to The Associated Press by Earthjustice, an environmental advocacy group, a turtle is plucked from gray muck along the Cape Fear River near the L.V. Sutton Plant near Wilmington, N.C. Floodwaters breached a dam at the electricity generating plant on Friday and overtopped a coal ash dump, potentially spilling toxic materials into the river. (Peter Harrison/Earthjustice via AP) In this screen grab from a Sept. 21, 2018, video provided to The Associated Press by Earthjustice, an environmental advocacy group, a turtle is plucked from gray muck along the Cape Fear River near the L.V. Sutton Plant near Wilmington, N.C. Floodwaters breached a dam at the electricity generating plant on Friday and overtopped a coal ash dump, potentially spilling toxic materials into the river. (Peter Harrison/Earthjustice via AP)

By Associated Press 6 min read

photo In this photo released Friday, Sept. 21, 2018, by Duke Energy, Gray material that Duke Energy characterized as lightweight coal combustion byproducts could be seen Friday floating on the top of the lake, near Wilmington, N.C. The ash left over when coal is burned to generate electricity coal ash contains an array of components, including mercury, lead, arsenic and other toxic heavy metals. The inundated basin contains at the plant 400,000 cubic yards of ash.(Duke Energy via AP)

WILMINGTON, N.C. (AP) – Gray muck is flowing into the Cape Fear River from the site of a dam breach at a Wilmington power plant Friday where an old coal ash dump had been covered over by Florence’s floodwaters.

Duke Energy spokeswoman Paige Sheehan said Friday the utility doesn’t believe the breach at the L.V. Sutton Power Station poses a significant threat of increased flooding to nearby communities.

The potential environmental threat was unclear.

No environmental regulators were at the scene, with officials citing unsafe conditions.

Floodwaters breached several points early Friday in the earthen dam at Sutton Lake, the plant’s 1,100-acre (445-hectare) reservoir. Lake water then flooded one of three large coal ash dumps lining the lakeshore.