Emergency workers and canoers at the broken stormwater pipe where coal ash waste from an unlined containment pond flows into the Dan River in Eden. Duke Energy said that 50,000 to 82,000 tons of coal ash and up to 27 million gallons of water were released from a 27-acre pond at the Dan River Steam Station which closed in 2012. The spot is six miles, 9.6 kms upriver from the water system intake for the city of Danville, Virginia, with a population around 43,000 people.