CHARLOTTE, N.C. -- Ever stop and think where your drinking water comes from? For a million people in the Charlotte area, it comes from Mountain Island Lake.

But there's a problem.

Right next to the lake is a coal ash pond. It s a pond that s unlined, full of toxic chemicals, and only held back from the lake by an earthen dam. Charlotte city leaders are worried about what would happen if something like the coal ash spill along the Dan River near the Virginia border--- were to happen here.

They're listening to a proposal from Duke Energy to clean up that coal ash pond at its Riverbend power plant, and move the ash to the airport.

The plan is to dump millions of tons of coal ash inside a huge liner at the Charlotte Douglas International Airport to build buildings or even a runway on top of it. First city council would have to approve the plan.

Duke Energy is already reusing coal ash as fill dirt at the Asheville Airport. Now the corporation wants to do the same in Charlotte.

Duke hired a company called Charah out of Kentucky. Charah trucks the coal ash to the Asheville Airport and dumps it inside of giant liners to keep the ash from leaking. Then they wrap it up like a giant burrito so it's contained. City staff, the Riverkeeper, and the governor - all seem open to the idea.

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