Florence Not Done Yet as Santee Cooper Fortifies Coal Ash Pond

South Carolina state-owned utility Santee Cooper is working to strengthen the dam at a coal ash pond that’s still threatened by rising waters from Hurricane Florence.

The company is installing an inflatable dike that will add 30 inches to the top of the dam, according to Mollie Gore, a spokeswoman for the Moncks Corner, S.C.-based utility. The ash pond contains about 200,000 tons of toxic residue from burning coal at the Grainger power plant, which closed in 2012.

Weather forecasts indicate that the Waccamaw River may exceed the current limits of overflow dams ...