"Environmental Groups Challenge State Settlement With Duke Energy"

"RALEIGH, N.C. -- Conservation groups have asked judges in Wake and Mecklenburg counties to reject a $7 million agreement between [North Carolina] and Duke Energy to settle years of groundwater contamination violations.

In court documents filed on Tuesday, attorneys from the Southern Environmental Law Center say an administrative law judge overstepped his bounds last month when he signed off on an agreement between the utility and the state Department of Environmental Quality that let Duke off the hook for a $25 million fine levied earlier in the year.

In addition to lowering the amount of money the utility owes the state, the environmental law attorneys contend the agreement ties the hand of the state from enforcing groundwater pollution laws at Duke’s 14 leaking coal ash sites."

Anne Blythe reports for the Charlotte Observer October 13, 2015.