Consol to Pay $5.5M for Clean Water Act Violations
Pittsburgh Post-Gazette
15 March 2011
By Don Hopey
CORE, W.Va. -- Consol Energy will pay a $5.5 million civil penalty to
settle hundreds of federal Clean Water Act violations at six of its
mines in West Virginia over the past four years, including pollution
discharges that contributed to a massive fish kill in 30 miles of
Dunkard Creek in the fall of 2009.
Under terms of the agreement, announced Monday at a news conference
along a green and springtime-full Dunkard Creek, Consol also will spend
$200 million to construct a massive, high-tech mine drainage treatment
facility near Mannington, W.Va., by May 2013, that will handle
wastewater from multiple mines.
"We are committed to cleaning up the waters of Dunkard Creek and the
Monongahela watershed and holding those who pollute it accountable,"
said Shawn Garvin, U.S. Environmental Protection Agency regional
administrator. "The centerpiece of this settlement -- a new advanced
wastewater treatment plant -- will substantially reduce pollution by
keeping nearly 100 million pounds of total dissolved solids, including
chloride, from reaching these waterways each year."
The federal complaint alleges chronic violations of discharge permit
limits at Consol's Blacksville No. 2, Loveridge, Robinson Run and Four
States mines in the Monongahela River drainage and at the Shoemaker and
Windsor mines, which discharge into tributaries of the Ohio River.
"In this settlement, Consol takes responsibility for its past failures
to abide by the terms of its Clean Water Act permits," said Ignacia
Moreno, of the Department of Justice's environment and natural
resources division of the Department of Justice.
Half of the $5.5 million penalty payment will go to the U.S. Department
of Justice and half to the West Virginia Department of Environmental
Protection.
As is standard procedure in such agreements, Consol did not admit any
liability. It issued a lengthy news release touting its economic
importance to West Virginia and its environmental record. Consol
President Nick Deluliis, quoted in the release, said the agreement
"represents a concrete, proactive demonstration of that commitment."
Katharine Fredriksen, Consol vice president for environmental strategy
and regulatory affairs, said 33 miles of pipe will be laid to connect
the Mannington treatment plant to the Blacksville No. 2, Loverage,
Robinson Run and Four States mines.
It will be the first mine water treatment facility in the U.S. to use
reverse osmosis, a treatment method typically used to remove salts and
dissolved solids in the treatment of drinking water, Ms. Fredriksen
said.
In a separate agreement to settle state charges related to the fish
kill on Dunkard Creek, Consol agreed to pay $500,000 to the West
Virginia Department of Natural Resources, said Scott Mandirola, water
and waste management division director for the West Virginia Department
of Environmental Protection.
That settlement will be used, at least in part, to help restore Dunkard
Creek, which runs along the Pennsylvania-West Virginia border.
A combination of low stream flow and high concentrations of chloride
and total dissolved solids in the discharge from Consol's Blacksville
No. 2 mine produced brackish water conditions that produced a bloom of
toxic golden algae, an invasive species.
Killed during the monthlong event were 15,000 to 22,000 large game
fish, plus large salamanders and 14 species of freshwater mussels, some
already ecologically threatened.
Betty Wiley, a leader of the Dunkard Creek Watershed Association, said
she was generally pleased with the federal settlement and hoped the
state settlement will eventually bring back aquatic life and the
thriving sport fishery to Dunkard Creek.
"The only thing that will help this creek is time and having good
water," Ms. Wiley said. "With good water it will gradually rebound. It
would have been better if the DNR settlement pinpointed that the
$500,000 be spent on Dunkard because this is where it all happened."
The settlement with Consol is the fourth major financial penalty
settlement with the coal industry by the Department of Justice for
alleged environmental violations in the past three years. Previously,
the department settled cases with Arch Coal, Patriot Coal and Massey
Coal Co.
Don Hopey: dhopey@post-gazette.com or 412-263-1983.