Company representatives completed at least two calls in North Carolina later that evening, one of which went to an Eden official who did not read a sense of urgency into the message. The other — state officials said — was too vague to trigger an appropriate reaction from emergency responders to the third-worst coal ash spill in the nation’s history.

Instead, Duke Energy tried to repair the problem on its own before summoning state regulators to the scene the following morning. That leaves some North Carolina officials wondering what they might have accomplished if, like Johns, they had gotten a head start on the spill, which was still underway the next day and which would continue for several days before it was staunched under the supervision of state and federal regulators.

Who gets the call?

Johnny Bowles, the director of Rockingham County’s emergency management program, said he remains puzzled over why Duke Energy officials did not call on local emergency crews right after discovering the spill on Super Bowl afternoon at the Eden plant’s ash storage basin on the river’s edge.

“They’ve always dialed 911 and got the appropriate help,” Bowles said in a recent interview. “This time, I’m not sure why we weren’t notified.