ALLEGHANY COUNTY, N.C.—One of the most prominent cattle farmers in North Carolina has reached a financial settlement with the state Department of Environmental Quality over allegations that its grazing operations damaged more than three miles of mountain streams and prompted state wildlife officials to conduct an emergency rescue of a fragile species of brook trout from the waterways.

The Sept. 4 settlement with Bottomley Properties and related companies ends a protracted legal battle that, in part, hinged on a technicality over which DEQ employee was authorized to sign the civil penalty assessment.

It reduces the original civil penalty from $263,000—one of the largest ever assessed by DEQ—to $92,500, payable in installments over four years. It stipulates that neither side admits to viol

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