Two years before the massive February 2014 spill at a Duke ash dump in Eden coated 70 miles of the Dan River in gray sludge, engineers at the plant twice requested $20,000 from company headquarters to use a robotic camera to inspect aging drainage pipes, including the one that later collapsed, triggering the disaster. Prosecutors said Duke executives denied the request both times, even after a top manager at the plant personally pleaded for the money to inspect the pipes.