RICHMOND, Va. (AP) _ The director of the Virginia Department of Environmental Quality says the state is looking at the long-term health of the Dan River following a massive coal ash spill in North Carolina. DEQ Director David K. Paylor said Monday the state will hold Duke Energy “fully accountable” for any environmental damage from the spill last month. Paylor said the monitoring of water and aquatic life in the Dan is likely to take several years. To date, he said testing of drinking water drawn from the Dan River by Virginia localities has found no public health concerns. The spill occurred about 20 miles from Virginia at a coal ash dump owned by Duke. The spill coated 70 miles of the river in a toxic gray sludge.
