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This aerial photo taken at Duke Energy’s Cape Fear Plant on March 10, 2014, by the environmental group WaterKeeper Alliance shows a large crack in the earthen dam holding back millions of tons of toxic coal ash and contaminated waste water. North Carolina regulators inspected the site twice in the following days, but now concede they failed to notice the crack clearly marked with metal stakes and bright orange streamers. State officials say they knew nothing of the potential hazard until Duke reported the crack on March 20, after the company was cited for illegally pumping 61 million gallons of contaminated wastewater into the Cape Fear River. The crack has since been repaired. (AP Photo/WaterKeeper Alliance, Rick Dove)

This aerial photo taken at Duke Energy’s Cape Fear Plant on March 10, 2014, by the environmental group WaterKeeper Alliance shows a large crack in the earthen dam holding back millions of tons of toxic coal ash and contaminated waste water. North Carolina regulators inspected the site twice in the following days, but now concede they failed to notice the crack clearly marked with metal stakes and bright orange streamers. State officials say they knew nothing of the potential hazard until Duke reported the crack on March 20, after the company was cited for illegally pumping 61 million gallons of contaminated wastewater into the Cape Fear River. The crack has since been repaired. (AP Photo/WaterKeeper Alliance, Rick Dove)

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