Environmental Groups/Patriot Coal Reach Settlement

{Morgantown, West Virginia}...The Sierra Club, West Virginia Highlands Conservancy and Ohio Valley Environmental Coalition reached a settlement Wednesday with St. Louis-based Patriot Coal Corp. that will end litigation over selenium pollution from mountaintop removal mines. The settlement calls for Patriot to pay a $750,000 fine to the federal government and contribute $6.75 million to the West Virginia Land Trust for a Supplemental Environmental Project. Under the deal, Patriot would treat pollution from 43 different outlets and its Jupiter Holdings LLC would surrender permits it got from the Army Corps of Engineers in 2007 to build four valley fills at its Jupiter Callisto surface mine in Boone County. The proposed settlement, filed in U.S. District Court in Huntington, must be subjected to public comment and approved by Judge Robert Chambers before it's finalized.