Duke Energy fined $25 million for groundwater contamination

Already having recently reached a $100 million settlement with the federal government over a coal ash spill into a river in 2014, Duke Energy (Charlotte, NC) now must pay $25.1 million in penalties to the state of North Carolina for groundwater contamination caused by coal ash stored at Duke’s Sutton Plant near Wilmington. The North Carolina Department of Environment and Natural Resources (DENR) levied the penalties on March 12, claiming that the operators of the Sutton Plant had allowed coal ash residuals stored in impoundments there to leach into the groundwater over a period of several years. Duke Energy has 30 days to respond to DENR’s action and could appeal the penalty to the state’s Office of Administrative Hearings. North Carolina’s Coal Ash Management Act became law in September 2014, setting the state on a course towards shutting down all of Duke Energy’s coal-ash impoundments at facilities in North Carolina.