Duke Energy pleads guilty in court to environmental crimes, agrees to pay $102 million in penalties
GREENVILLE, N.C. (WTVD) -- In federal district court in Greenville Thursday, Duke Energy agreed to pay the largest fine in North Carolina's history and the second largest fine ever for Clean Water Act violations.
The company pleaded guilty to nine criminal counts of environmental negligence and will pay $102 million in penalties and be on probation for the next five years.
"Today we said that big corporations are not above the law," said U.S. Attorney Thomas Walker, "and polluters that harm our environment will be held accountable."
Flanked by an enormous team of attorneys from the U.S. Department of Justice, Walker and others had harsh words for Duke Energy.
"Duke apologized for their actions and they should have," said DOJ attorney John Cruden.
According to testimony in court, Duke's own engineers cautioned the company about the integrity of storm pipes under the Dan River coal site as far back as 1979 and as recently as a few years ago and the company refused to investigate.
The company's lawyer told the judge that despite the fact it would have only cost $20,000 to send video cameras down those pipes, Duke management deferred, saying they planned to close the plant down by 2016.
"They should have been monitoring better," said Cruden. "They should have been fixing what they saw. They should have been listening to their employees. And if they had done that this spill would not have occurred."
Duke's attorney argued that the spill made the energy giant a better company.
"The Dan River spill has changed this company forever," said Jim Cooney with Womble Carlyle. "It's a better company, but it's also a different company."
Cooney said Duke Energy has made changes in its internal organization, coal ash basin management, and its approach to remediation.
Asked about the five years of probation, Cooney said "The company expects to continue on the path it's going on and the probation is designed to make sure it stays on that path. Ideally, what happens is there's no impact because the company is doing what it should do and the judgement requires it to do what it should do."
Environmentalists we talked to aren't convinced.
"This day confirms that Duke is guilty of committing serious environmental crimes for which a substantial penalty is due," said John Suttles with the Southern Environmental Law Center, which has been challenging Duke in court for years. "What it doesn't do is clean up the mess that Duke's coal ash lagoons have created, that continue to this day."
In court, Duke admitted it has more than 200 so-called "seeps" at its 30-plus coal ash lagoons in North Carolina - toxic water "seeping" out of the sides of the lagoons and into state waterways.
The company is fighting the state over whether that constitutes "illegal pollution;" more lawsuits are still in the works.
Pete Harrison, with the Waterkeeper Alliance, said his eyes are set on what happens next.
"We really need to keep our sights set on cleanup," said Harrison, "and permanent removal of this ash from these sites that are leaking and continue to contaminate groundwater. We hope it marks a shift in the company's attitude and we hope it will be a signal to other utilities around the country."
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