EPA settles air pollution case with utility for $5.4M

The Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) has settled a 15-year-old case against Duke Energy Corp. that alleged that the utility illegally modified 13 coal-fired power plant units at five sites.

The Thursday settlement requires that Duke never operate the 11 units its has retired, retire another one, pay a $975,000 penalty and spend $4.4 million on environmental remediation.

{mosads}The power plants are all in North Carolina, and the EPA and Justice Department said Duke did not get the correct permits for modifications.

“This settlement brings five more power plants into compliance under EPA’s national initiative to cut pollution from the country’s largest sources,” Cynthia Giles, the EPA’s assistant administrator for enforcement, said in a statement.

“After many years, we’ve secured a strong resolution, one that will help reduce asthma attacks and other serious illnesses for the people of North Carolina.”

“The settlement announced today marks another milestone in our ongoing efforts to enforce the Clean Air Act and reduce air pollution from coal-fired power plants,” said John Cruden, head of the Justice Department’s environmental division.

In its own statement, Duke said it did nothing wrong.

“Duke Energy denies the alleged violations, maintains it complied fully with federal law, and is agreeing to settle the case solely to avoid the costs and uncertainties of continued litigation,” the company said, adding that it expected that the costs of continuing the litigation would exceed the costs of the settlement.

The federal government’s original case, filed in 2000, included 25 generating units, but it dismissed the claims for 12.