Federal Prosecutors File Criminal Charges Against Duke Energy Over Coal Ash Dumps

[Webster]

WLOS-Asheville: US Charges Duke With Illegal Pollution From Coal Ash Dumps

Duke Energy is facing multiple criminal charges for years of alleged illegal pollution from coal ash dumps at five North Carolina power plants. The nation’s largest energy supplier is also singled out for violations at it’s Asheville coal-fired power plant and has already negotiated a settlement agreeing to pay $102-million dollars in fines in the criminal case.

“These are new criminal charges against Duke energy,” said DJ Gerkin, managing attorney for Southern Environmental Law Center based in Asheville. “Duke has been under investigation by federal prosecutors and a grand jury for the better part of a year.”

Court papers detail allegations Duke "negligently discharged pollutants.” “And from their Asheville plant they discharged polluted water into the French Broad river negligently and in violation of their permit,” said Gerkin.

“Federal prosecutors have basically validated what the North Carolina riverkeepers have been saying for three or four years now,” sid Hartwell Carson, Riverkeeper for the French Broad. “Duke was illegally polluting our rivers and this is the first step in holding them accountable.”

But Cartwell said there is still no real plan in place to address clean-up at all North Carolina Duke plants like there is for Asheville. He explained why the public should care. “Our rivers are our drinking water source,” said Hartwell. “They're our recreation source, fishery, and to illegally dump toxic heavy metals into the river is not only a violation of the Clean Water Act but it's just wrong and shouldn't be done to our waterways.”

“It's been undermining water quality and ground water in North Carolina for years,” said Gerkin.

Duke released its own news release stating the company has reached a proposed agreement related to the Dan River coal ash spill and ash basin operations at other North Carolina coal plants. The release added the agreement is subject to review and approval by the U.S. District Court for the Eastern District of North Carolina, which is the court Duke has requested cases from other jurisdictions get consolidated to.

On February 4, 2014 a storm water pipe under a coal ash basin at the former Dan River Steam Station broke, releasing as he into the Dan River in Rockingham County, North Carolina.

“We are accountable for what happened at Dan River and have learned from this event,” said Lynn Good, president and CEO of Duke, in a statement sent out by the company. “We are setting a new standard for coal ash management and implementing smart, sustainable solutions for all our ash basins.

The discharge of coal ash and coal ash wastewater allegedly took place at the Asheville Steam Water Electric Plant between May 2011 and December 2014. The details of the violations were in an earnings report filed with the Securities and Exchange Commission Wednesday.

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