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Criminal charges filed against Duke Energy for NC coal ash spills Misdemeanor counts stem from coal ash spills in 4 N.C. rivers By Bruce Henderson and Anne Blythe, The Charlotte Observer February 20, 2015 CHARLOTTE, N.C. — Federal prosecutors Friday filed criminal charges against Duke Energy for illegal discharges from ash ponds across North Carolina, where a massive spill a year ago triggered intense scrutiny of the company's environmental management. Duke said it has reached a settlement agreement with the federal government over nine misdemeanor violations of the Clean Water Act. The settlement would end an investigation of its ash handling that began with a spill into the Dan River on Feb. 2, 2014. Duke would pay $68.2 million in fines and restitution and $34 million for community service and mitigation projects. The money will come from shareholders, not customers. The settlement has to be reviewed and approved by a federal judge. U.S. Attorney Thomas Walker of the Eastern District, where the cases will be transferred, said he would have no comment until they come before a judge. "We are accountable for what happened at Dan River and have learned from this event," Duke CEO Lynn Good said in a statement. "We are setting a new standard for coal ash management and implementing smart, sustainable solutions for all our ash basins. Our highest priorities are safe operations and the well -being of the people and communities we serve." A criminal bill of information filed in U.S. District Court in Charlotte charges Duke with coal ash and wastewater discharges from an unpermitted drain at the Riverbend power plant west of Charlotte. A second, similar count is for the Asheville plant. A third, filed in Raleigh, alleges a discharge of coal ash and coal ash wastewater from an unpermitted drainage ditch near the H.F. Lee Steam Electric Plant in Goldsboro into the Neuse River. The time period for that discharge was no later than Oct. 2010 through the end of 2014. Other charges are connected to the spill and illegal discharges at the Dan River plant and maintenance issues at the Cape Fear power plant in Chatham County, Duke said. The charges say Duke "negligently" discharged the pollutants. Employees failed to "exercise the degree of care that someone of ordinary prudence would have exercised" and aided and abetted each other. The charges are misdemeanors. Duke revealed a proposed settlement of the charges Wednesday in an earnings report that put $102 million into a litigation account. The possibility of criminal charges had hung over the nation's biggest electric utility for a year