Duke Energy Creates $10 Million Fund Promoting Water Quality

Duke Energy is creating a $10 million fund to improve and promote water quality and conservation in five states. Duke Energy president Lynn Good said Wednesday the fund reflects the company's commitment to the environment. 

Nonprofit groups and local governments in North and South Carolina, Virginia, Tennessee and Georgia can apply for the money. Paul Newton, president of North Carolina operations, said the fund includes $1.5 million specifically earmarked for the Dan River. According to the Winston-Salem Journal, Duke Energy has already decided to grant $250,000 each to two Dan River-based organizations: the River Bank Fund and the Rockingham County Community Foundation.

Several locations down river of Duke Energy plants have received money, including Asheville, which will install kiosks to tell the environmental story of the area - starting on a greenway and progressing to the river. North Carolina's environmental department cited Duke Energy's Asheville plant for discharging coal ash waste into the French Broad River.

Frank Holleman, senior staff attorney for the Southern Environmental Law Center, says the energy corporation can help protect waterways by curbing coal ash pollution.