(Rockingham County, N.C.) – Five years after a massive coal ash spill coated the Dan River with a thick, gray sludge, 33 property owners in Rockingham County, North Carolina have reached a settlement with Duke Energy.

The agreement was reached earlier this week but terms of the settlement were not made public.

On Feb. 2, 2014, a storm water pipe broke at a shuttered plant in Eden, releasing 39,000 tons of coal ash into the water, coating the riverbanks. Their lawyers say property values were lowered following one of the worst environmental disasters in North Carolina history.

The landowners filed suit in 2017, claiming Duke Energy knew about the dangers posed by the pipe and the coal ash.

In a statement, Duke Energy said that years of studies have shown that the land was not impacted by the spill and that the company is “pleased to put this issue behind us.”