North Carolina’s Middle District Court has scheduled a hearing in a lawsuit that pits the Yadkin Riverkeeper against Duke Energy.

The hearing will be Wednesday morning in Winston-Salem and centers on a suit alleging Clean Water Act violations at Buck Steam Station. It was filed by the Yadkin Riverkeeper and Waterkeeper Alliance. The Southern Environmental Law Center is representing both parties in the suit.

Wednesday’s hearing will be on all pending motions. Judge Loretta C. Biggs has been assigned to the suit.

In the action filed in September 2014, the Yadkin Riverkeeper alleges chemicals — some thousands of percentage points higher than the standard — are seeping from discharges prohibited by Duke Energy’s wastewater permit. The chemicals are allegedly leaching into groundwater, the Yadkin River and High Rock Lake, according to the filing.

The Yadkin Riverkeeper is demanding a jury trial.

Since the initial filing, state test results have shown elevated levels of chemicals linked to coal ash such as hexavalent chromium in water wells located nearby. Results from an overwhelming majority of water wells tested by the state declare water unsafe to drink because of elevated chemical levels. Vanadium and hexavalent chromium are two of the most common.

Duke Energy began providing bottled water to residents near Buck Steam Station shortly after the state’s test results declared wells unsafe for consumption. The company has also said it would build a municipal water line to nearby residents if it’s proven that Duke’s coal ash ponds are clearly linked to nearby contamination.

Since the test results Duke has argued the elevated chemical levels could be naturally occurring.

In its filing the Yadkin Riverkeeper asks for: a declaratory judgment that Duke is violating the Clean Water Act, a civil penalty of up to $37,500 per day for each violation, removal of all coal ash from Buck Steam Station’s ponds, removal of any pollutants that have seeped into the Yadkin River and measures to prevent the flow of contaminated groundwater into the river.

Duke Energy asks for the case to be dismissed in a 59-page filing, which cites a pending state case that also involves the Yadkin Riverkeeper.

“The Riverkeepers ask that this court conduct a duplicate proceeding under the citizens suit provision of the (Clean Water Act),” Duke’s filing states. “In addition, the Riverkeepers seek to have this court entertain a lawsuit on legal theories concerning groundwater and removed substances that have been rejected by other courts.”

Duke’s filing states the Clean Water Act was not intended to allow an individual group to impose its interpretation on the state.

Contact reporter Josh Bergeron at 704-797-4246