Duke plans to dredge river as coal ash deal nixed
RALEIGH, N.C. (AP) — Duke Energy says it plans to begin dredging coal ash out of a North Carolina river as state officials move to scuttle a previously proposed settlement with the company over pollution leaking from waste dumps at its power plants.
Duke Energy said that as of late Tuesday afternoon it was staging equipment and hadn't begun dredging.
Lawyers for the state Department of Environment and Natural Resources asked a judge late Monday to disregard its own proposed settlement with the nation's largest electricity provider. Under the deal proposed over the summer, Duke would have paid fines of $99,111 for pollution that leaked from two coal dumps like the one that ruptured Feb. 2, spewing toxic sludge into the Dan River.
The state dumped the settlement one day after a story by The Associated Press in which environmentalists criticized the arrangement with Duke Energy.
___
Weiss reported from Greenville, S.C.
___
Follow Michael Biesecker at Twitter.com/mbieseck
