VIRGINIA — One of the nation’s largest coal companies agreed to spend about $200 million to install and operate a waste water treatment systems and upgrade its operation to reduce discharges from coal mines in five states, according to federal authorities.
Alpha Natural Resources, Inc, Alpha Appalachian Holdings and its subsidiaries own coal mines in Kentucky, Pennsylvania, Tennessee, Virginia and West Virginia, according to EPA, Environmental Protection Agency, which made the announcement on Wednesday.
The companies will also pay a penalty of $27.5 million – the largest in the history of the Clean Water Act – for thousands of permit violations, according to the U.S. Justice Department.
EPA estimates that the upgrades and advanced treatment required by the settlement will reduce discharges of total dissolved solids by over 36 million pounds each year, and will cut metals and other pollutants by approximately nine million pounds per year.
“The unprecedented size of the civil penalty in this settlement sends a strong deterrent message to others in this industry that such egregious violations of the nation’s Clean Water Act will not be tolerated,” said Robert G. Dreher, Acting Assistant Attorney General for the Justice Department’s Environment and Natural Resources Division on Wednesday. “
Gene Kitts, Bristol, Virginia-based Alpha’s senior vice president of environmental affairs, told Bloomberg News the company had a combined total water quality compliance rate of 99.8 percent last year.
“This settlement will provide a consistent structure to our efforts to become even better in preventing incidents and in responding quickly to situations where permit limits are exceeded,” he told
Companies Had More Than 6,000 Violations of Permits
The government lawsuit alleged that, between 2006 and 2013, Alpha and its subsidiaries routinely violated limits in 336 of its state-issued permits. This resulted in hundreds of rivers and streams in the five states being polluted, the EPA said.
The violations also included discharge of pollutants without a permit.
Here are other EPA findings:
- In total, EPA documented at least 6,289 violations of permit limits for pollutants that include iron, aluminum, manganese, selenium, and salinity.
- These violations occurred at 794 different discharge points, or outfalls.
- Monitoring records also showed that multiple pollutants were discharged in amounts of more than twice the permitted limit on many occasions.
- Most violations stemmed from the company’s failure to properly operate existing treatment systems; install adequate treatment systems; and implement appropriate water handling and management plans.