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http: / /www.wraI.com/ fact - check -is- duke - telling- the - truth - about - toxicity - /14288028/ "The constituents that are naturally occurring in soil dissolve the same way as constituents in coal ash," she said. "There are background levels of these constituents in groundwater and surface water." This is a point of contention in much of the litigation between environmental advocates and the company. Environmental groups contend that rivers and groundwater see spikes in contaminants near coal ash ponds. In general, the concern with coal ash is that water that washes through the ash picks up toxins and washes them away where they can affect drinking water or be consumed by fish and birds, which are then eaten by humans. Vengosh said that studies suggest that, due to the processes involved in burning coal, it is much easier for toxins to wash out of ash into water supplies than it is for the same material to be washed out of soils. SMALL QUANTITIES: Duke's fact sheet makes the point that "trace elements in ash are measured in very small units. A part per million is equivalent to four drops of water in a 55- gallon drum." Sheehan said this was not offered up to minimize the risk but to help educate the public on words, measurements and other information they may not have heard about before and to put it into context. "I think it's safe to say that most of us don't spend much time thinking about measurements in parts per billion," she said. "We included analogies in the fact sheet to help people understand the language and put it into perspective." LeBlanc said that he worries the descriptions of those very small amounts might give a non - scientist the impression they're not worth worrying about. vo different things to scientists and to a lay " he said. ins that government regulations set very low materials like arsenic and selenium, he said, is hose materials are toxic. THE CALL: To land a green light on our fact- checkinm scale, we demand "no materially incorrect assertions or misleading statements." While there aren't any fact errors in this sheet, our experts say the facts Duke Energy cites are used to build a case that might give the casual reader the wrong idea. A yellow light on our scale generally indicates a lack of context or facts that have been cherry- picked. The focus on direct ingestion dangers and the less - than - transparent citation of industry trade groups would meet that test for us. Generally, we reserve red lights for those willfully perpetrating factual errors. But our fact checks will sometimes give a red light to those who are using true facts to, either on purpose or by accident, obscure the truth. "I don't to take sides on these things. I try to be an objective source of information for either side," LeBlanc said. "But I do find it a little bit disappointing when I see documents like this and they're stated as, 'The Facts.' Really, it is trying to put some facts out there that are going to mislead. In my opinion, that's what they're doing here." Duke Energy earns a red light for this fact sheet. Reporter Mark Binker