The settlement cuts by more than 70 percent a record $25.1 million fine the state Department of Environmental Quality levied in March for leaks from the ash ponds at the L.V. Sutton Steam Plant near Wilmington. Duke had appealed the fine, claiming that the DEQ had violated its own policies and procedures in assessing it, and the two sides spent much of Monday behind closed doors trying to hammer out a deal before the appeal went before a state administrative law judge.