The largest coal producer in West Virginia
The consent decree settles a
complaint made by the federal EPA and state agencies against Alpha Natural
Resources in West Virginia, Kentucky, Tennessee, Virginia and Pennsylvania that
it was discharging more from its mining operations into the water supply that
it was allowed to do.
Investigators said that between
2006 and 2013 Alpha violated water pollution limits 6,000 times.
In its release announcing the
settlement, Alpha said the complaint did not allege “the exceedances posed a
risk to human health.”
Alpha has agreed to implement an
environmental management system and install treatment facilities at specific
locations.
“This consent decree provides a framework
for our efforts to become fully compliant with our environmental permits,
specifically under the Clean Water Act,” Alpha Senior Vice President of
Environmental Affairs Gene Kitts said in Alpha’s prepared release. “Our
combined total water quality compliance rate for 2013 was 99.8 percent. That’s
a strong record of compliance, particularly considering it’s based on more than
665,000 chances to miss a daily or monthly average limit. But our goal is to do
even better, and the consent decree provides an opportunity to proactively
focus on improving on the less than 1 percent of the time that permit limits
were exceeded.”
Alpha’s improvement plan will cover
nearly 80 coal mines and two dozen coal prep plants in several states.
The $27.5 million fine will be
split between the federal government and the states.
