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Duke plans to pay $100M in coal ash settlement

 
Amy Adams, North Carolina campaign coordinator with Appalachian Voices, shows wet coal ash from the Dan River in Danville, Va.
Amy Adams, North Carolina campaign coordinator with Appalachian Voices, shows wet coal ash from the Dan River in Danville, Va.
Published Feb. 19, 2015

RALEIGH, N.C. — Duke Energy expects to pay $100 million to resolve a federal criminal grand jury investigation of its coal ash management, the company said Wednesday.

The grand jury in Raleigh began investigating about a year ago, after the Feb. 2, 2014, spill of up to 39,000 tons of ash into the Dan River near the Virginia line.

The grand jury subpoenaed documents and correspondence from both Duke and North Carolina's Department of Environment and Natural Resources, which regulates the company's coal ash.

U.S. Attorney Thomas Walker, whose office convened the grand jury, has not commented on it.

Duke, the nation's largest utility and the dominant electric company in west-central Florida, said it would pay the penalty under a proposed agreement that would resolve the investigation.

Chief executive officer Lynn Good would not discuss the settlement Wednesday.

Duke still faces joint state and Environmental Protection Agency enforcement, as well as numerous lawsuits related to ash that were filed by the DENR and advocacy groups.

In a statement, the DENR said it is not part of negotiations over the federal charges.

"However, the department would like to point out that this settlement would not resolve DENR's civil litigation over violations at coal ash ponds, which is ongoing," the statement said. "We also continue to investigate violations of state groundwater standards and to maintain our enforcement partnership with the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency for civil violations of the Clean Water Act."

Advocacy groups have complained that state regulators have been lax in holding Duke accountable for the environmental impacts of its 108 million tons of ash stored in 32 ash ponds in North Carolina.

Groundwater contamination has been detected at each of Duke's 14 coal-fired power plants in the state, though the sources have not been fully identified.

State lawsuits against Duke cite that contamination as well as illegal seeps from the earthen dams that impound the ponds. In December, Duke reported about 200 seeps that together release more than 3 million gallons a day near lakes and rivers.

The proposed settlement shows that Duke's ash handling has "been dangerous for the rivers and people of the state," said Frank Holleman, an attorney for the Southern Environmental Law Center, which represents advocacy groups that have sued Duke.