RALEIGH, (SGRToday.com) - North Carolina is taking extra steps to ensure that communities near planned Duke Energy coal ash landfills are safe and not negatively impacted by implementing an  environmental justice review that exceeds federal and state requirements.

Assistant Secretary of Environmental Quality Tom Reeder made the announcement at a town hall meeting in Walnut Cove.

“The McCrory administration is a national leader in addressing the decades-old issue of coal ash and continues to set an example for the federal government and other states on this issue,” Reeder said in a statement.  “The McCrory administration will go beyond federal and state requirements to protect minority communities from negative impacts when evaluating Duke Energy’s applications to store coal ash in a new landfill.”

The state's plan is to review each landfill application and ask the EPA Office of Civil Rights, the U.S. Commission on Civil Rights and its North Carolina Advisory Committee to review and approve the plan before a permit is issued.