Monday, July 16, 2012

Environmental Groups Sue Alpha Natural Resources

{Huntington, West Virginia}...The Ohio Valley Environmental Coalition, West Virginia Highlands Conservancy and Sierra Club sued Alpha Natural Resources over selenium pollution again Monday. The complaint, filed in U.S. District Court in Huntington, focuses on nine southern West Virginia operations and targets operations in Logan, McDowell, Boone, and Kanawha counties. The environmental groups say Virginia-based Alpha is violating the federal Clean Water Act and state-issued discharge permits. They want a judge to order the operations to comply and fine Alpha as much as $37,500 per day of violation, some of which date to 2007. They also seek monitoring and sampling to determine the extent of the environmental damage, and a cleanup and restoration order.

The affected mines are: Alex Energy's Whitman No. 2 Surface Mine, Aracoma Coal Co.'s Camp Branch facility, Bandmill Coal Corp.'s Tower Mountain Surface Mine, Highland Mining Co.'s Freeze Fork Surface Mine, Independence Coal's Twilight Surface Mine, Jack's Branch Lady Dunn Preparation Plant, Hughes Creek Surface mine and Stockton Mine and Kanawha Energy's Fourmile Fork Surface Mine.