The Dan River Steam Station is a power plant in Eden, North Carolina, owned by Duke Energy.

[2] The station was the object of a 1971 United States Supreme Court Case, Griggs v. Duke Power Co., in which African-American employees contended that they were discriminated against when Duke required them to possess a high school diploma and/or pass a standardized general intelligence test in order to obtain certain positions at the station, neither of which was found to have bearing on the employee's ability to perform the sought positions.

[4] At that time, the education requirements were disproportionately harming African-Americans and the well paying positions were only being filled by white employees.

[6] Duke Energy later pled guilty to criminal negligence in its handling of coal ash at the Dan River Plant and at other facilities, and paid substantial fines.

[7] In addition, the states affected launched a lawsuit on July 18, 2019, asking that the court declare Duke Energy responsible for the damage done to the environment by the spill.