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Danville Settles With Duke Energy Over Coal Ash Spill

City Council in Danville, Virginia approved a $2.4 million dollar settlement from Duke Energy for damages caused by the coal ash spill in Eden. The council approved the resolution at a closed special session Tuesday evening.

The spill happened at Duke's shuttered Dan River Steam Plant in February of 2014. About 39,000 tons of coal ash were released into the Dan River, which flows north into Virginia.

Council member Lee Vogler told the Danville Register and Bee the settlement was a good deal for the city.

The former mill town has received $3 million dollars overall from Duke Energy. That includes $500,000 for a project to improve a local park.

There were no immediate environmental problems following the spill, but biologists say it's still too soon to know the long-term effects on the river.

The Virginia Department of Environmental Quality will continue to monitor water quality, sediment and fish.

Neal Charnoff joined 88.5 WFDD as Morning Edition host in 2014. Raised in the Catskill region of upstate New York, he graduated from Sarah Lawrence College in 1983. Armed with a liberal arts degree, Neal was fully equipped to be a waiter. So he prolonged his arrested development bouncing around New York and L.A. until discovering that people enjoyed listening to his voice on the radio. After a few years doing overnight shifts at a local rock station, Neal spent most of his career at Vermont Public Radio. He began as host of a nightly jazz program, where he was proud to interview many of his idols, including Dave Brubeck and Sonny Rollins. Neal graduated to the news department, where he was the local host for NPR's All Things Considered for 14 years. In addition to news interviews and features, he originated and produced the Weekly Conversation On The Arts, as well as VPR Backstage, which profiled theater productions around the state. He contributed several stories to NPR, including coverage of a devastating ice storm. Neal now sees the value of that liberal arts degree, and approaches life with the knowledge that all subjects and all art forms are connected to each other. Neal and his wife Judy are enjoying exploring North Carolina and points south. They would both be happy to never experience a Vermont winter again.

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