Dive Brief:

• Following a second leak at a Duke Energy coal ash pond, North Carolina officials are defending their oversight of the facilities.

• The North Carolina Department of Natural Resources (DNR) agrees that the state's coal ash ponds are contaminating groundwater and harming aquatic life. The state agency wants to see the ash ponds cleaned up, officials said.

• Federal prosecutors have issued a second set of subpoenas to the state agency as part of an investigation into the handling of coal ash in the state.

Dive Insight:

The news for Duke and the state around coal ash keeps getting worse. State officials said they're on the same side of the groups that have sued to force Duke to clean up the ash ponds. Those groups aren't buying it. "How can we be on the same side of the table if they don't even let us come into the room?" Frank Holleman, senior attorney for the Southern Environmental Law Center, said.