Dec. 16, 2019: On Friday December 13, 2019, Administrative Law Judge Melissa Owens-Lassiter revoked the permits for both the Chatham and Lee County coal ash landfills. The case was remanded to the Office of Administrative Hearings by the North Carolina Court of Appeals in 2018. Judge Lassiter initially heard the case in December 2015.

The original lawsuit was brought in 2015 by Blue Ridge Environmental Defense League (BREDL), Chatham Citizens Against Coal ash Dump (CCACAD), and EnvironmentaLEE (ELEE) in response to permits issued by the North Carolina Department of Environmental Quality (DEQ) to Green Meadow, a subsidiary of Charah, Inc. in June of that year. The permits allowed Duke Energy's coal ash to be used as "mine reclamation" - even though most of the sites had never been mined. The permits were issued in less than 7 months.

BREDL Press Release | View Judge's Decision