Time Someone Followed Orders

New state directive to CONSOL Energy helps keep tabs on quality of waterway

Morgantown Dominion Post - Editorial
3 May 2010

This is one time when someone had better follow orders. Last week, the state Department of  Environmental Protection (DEP) issued a new order to CONSOL Energy. Its Blacksville No. 2 mine and its St. Leo facility can both continue to discharge mine water into Dunkard Creek, under certain circumstances.

Although the new order contains no major changes from an earlier one that expired Friday, this new directive does call for increased monitoring for algae. CONSOL must also reduce discharges from its St. Leo facility by 50 percent.

CONSOL has also submitted plans for two treatment facilities for the watershed that must be up and running by May 2013. The plants would remove all total dissolved solids (TDS) before discharging into waterways.

Fresh in the minds of many western Monongalia County residents and others is the environmental disaster last summer that killed thousands of fish.

A golden algae bloom released a toxin, effectively killing all aquatic life in the creek, which runs 43 miles along the Pennsylvania-West Virginia border.

Mine discharge has been the focus of the West Virginia DEP’s investigation into elevated TDS that allowed the algae to bloom.

The discharge from Blacksville No. 2 was primarily responsible for the elevated TDS levels, according to the Pennsylvania Department of Environmental Protection.

CONSOL ceased its discharges of mine water into Dunkard Creek in mid-September, shortly after the fish kill was discovered and only resumed them after clearance from the DEP in January. The discharge keeps closed sections of the mine from filling with water.

For now, the increased monitoring during warmer weather, the planned treatment facilities, monthly meetings between CONSOL and the departments of environmental protection from West Virginia and Pennsylvania and other measures are all progress.

CONSOL’s discharges into this waterway will legally continue under this new order, which expires Oct. 31.

Some have yet to reconcile with CONSOL over what happened last year to Dunkard Creek. Still, we remind them that this company also provides a livelihood for hundreds of local families and contributes huge sums in coal severance taxes, and is an integral part of our community.

We also remind CONSOL that it’s important it not only live up to the letter of the law, but the spirit of these environmental regulations, too. It only stands to reason that CONSOL, and everyone else who profits from West Virginia’s natural resources, would want to protect their investment — those very same natural resources. That’s no suggestion — that’s an order.