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RALEIGH — A proposal to subject power companies’ coal ash ponds to more government oversight cleared a key committee last week and appears on a fast track to become law before summer’s end.

That’s in stark contrast to the measure’s fate three months ago, when senior lawmakers said coal ash regulation was unlikely to be heard this year.

“I felt like I was beating my head against the wall for seven months,” said Rep. Pricey Harrison, the measure’s lead author and a Greensboro Democrat.

Coal ash ponds came to national attention in December when a Tennessee Valley Authority dam broke and released more than a billion gallons of a slurry.

Whether stored in a wet form, as in the case of the TVA spill, or as dry powder, the ash is what’s leftover from burning coal for energy.

It contains hazardous chemicals such as arsenic and selenium.

The state has 14 coal ash ponds. No state agency inspects the dams to ensure they are structurally safe. Instead, utilities companies are allowed to submit their engineering reports to the N.C. Public Utilities Commission.

Harrison’s legislation would place the coal ash dams under the Dam Safety Act, which would require state inspections.

Opposition from the utility companies stalled that bill this year. But in the past month, two things changed the landscape:

lThe U.S. Environmental Protection Agency released a list of 44 high-hazard dams and 12 were in North Carolina. Two of those are in Eden beside a Duke Energy power plant.

lGov. Bev Perdue lent her support to the legislation, saying that “greater safety oversight and more frequent inspections will help reduce potential risks.”

Power companies also appear to have dropped their opposition.

“We support the legislation that came out of the House Environment Committee,” said Jason Walls, a Duke Energy spokesman. In April, Duke was circumspect about Harrison’s bill.

The measure is now part of a larger package of environment bills, all related to power generation.

But it does not have some of the provisions in Harrison’s earlier legislation that would have more strictly regulated how coal waste is used. Dry coal ash is a common ingredient in dry wall and is sometimes used as fill material for roadbeds and other large projects.

“There’s a lot more that we could be thinking about,” Harrison said. That, she said, could be studied by environmental regulators after the General Assembly adjourns this summer.

Harrison’s bill next will go to the House floor and then must be approved by the Senate.

Contact Mark Binker at (919)832-5549 or mark.binker@news-record.com