Groups Issue Intent to File Citizen Suit Against W.Va. Mining
Company
The State Journal
1 November 2011
By Taylor Kuykendall, Reporter
Following a report detailing mining-related pollution of two
streams, three West Virginia organizations sent a notice of intent
to file a civil lawsuit against a coal company with facilities
near the streams.
According to a report from Morgantown-based Downstream Strategies,
coal combustion wastes and acid mine drainage are at levels in
excess of water quality standards at Crafts Run and Robinson Run.
The findings point to Mepco coal mining and refuse disposal
operations as the source for pollution, which the report claims
generally increases as Crafts Run flows downstream.
The company however, claims the pollution is coming from abandoned
mines.
Both streams are located near Maidsville, just a few miles north
of Morgantown, beside the Pennsylvania border. Robinson Run drains
into the Monongahela River.
Evan Hansen, president of Downstream Strategies, said the
consulting firm tested for pollution from acid mine drainage and
coal combustion waste. They also tested conductivity in the
streams.
"In terms of coal combustion wastes, we found some high
concentrations of arsenic and selenium," Hansen said.
"Those can impact aquatic life."
Coal combustion wastes are the remains of coal burned at electric
power plants. The waste, which is alkaline, can be used to treat
acid mine drainage, but it also contains toxic materials such as
arsenic and selenium.
The streams are near the Dunkard Creek watershed. Consol Energy
recently agreed to pay more than $205 million in federal fines and
cleanup costs after an algae bloom killed off much of aquatic life
in that stream.
The notice of intent to file a citizen suit comes from the Sierra
Club, the West Virginia Highlands Conservancy and the Fort Martin
Community Association. The groups are represented by attorneys
Richard Webster of Public Justice and Mike Becher of Appalachian
Mountain Advocates.
The letter notifies sibling companies Coresco and Mepco, that if
the streams are not cleaned up within 60 days, the groups plan to
file a lawsuit alleging several violations of the Clean Water Act.
Coresco would also be accused of violations of the Surface Mining
Control and Reclamation Act. Coresco operates the sites alleged to
be the sources of pollution on Mepco property. Both companies are
subsidiaries of Mepco International Holdings.
James Laurita, president and CEO of Mepco, said the claims in the
letter are "ridiculous." He said he was not concerned about the
allegations, which he says are without merit.
"By and large, the allegations are unfounded," Laurita said. "… We
will be able to demonstrate that I have done nothing but improve
Crafts Run since I've been involved with these operations for many
decades now.
We've reclaimed miles and miles and miles of abandoned highwall
and Crafts Run has improved in quality since we've been mining
there."
Laurita said much of the aquatic life in Crafts Run is degraded as
a result of pollution, but said the source of that pollution is
old, orphaned mines that were on the property decades before Mepco
had property there.
"They're indicating and (alleging) that those orphan mines in the
Pittsburgh seam – and we don't even mine in that seam – that
somehow we're responsible for them," Laurita said. "Those are,
obviously they're very heavily polluted."
He said the blame for that pollution has unjustly been aimed at
Mepco.
"They were mines from the turn of the century," Laurita said of
the Pittsburgh seam coal mines in the area.
"We're in compliance with all of our effluent limits, have been
all along," Laurita said. "There have been no exceedances of the
effluent limits as set by the state."
Laurita said contending with lawsuits such as the one threatened
by the three groups raises the cost to do business, and therefore
electricity.
"The people that are making these allegations – there's no sitting
down and working out anything with these type of people," Laurita
said. "They simply are out to stop all mining. That there's
agenda."
Laurita said the company was still reviewing their options and may
be providing a more detailed response at a later date.
The lawsuit would be filed in U.S. District Court Northern
District of West Virginia.
Pollutants presented in findings by Downstream Strategies include
elevated levels of dissolved solids such as aluminum, iron and
manganese, but also high levels of boron and selenium, common
elements of coal combustion waste. Downstream Strategies also
found several permitted outfalls that they said have discharged
selenium and arsenic into Crafts Run at concentrations that exceed
state surface water quality criteria.
In addition to their own sampling, Downstream Strategies looked at
self-monitoring data from the dischargers that showed past
violations of state criteria for dissolved aluminum, iron and pH
into Robinson Run.
Hansen said the West Virginia Department of Environmental
Protection has not been enforcing permit compliance based on
self-reporting data.
"Enforcement of these permits is up to the DEP, but the DEP has
not chosen to aggressively enforce them," he said.
Both Robinson Run and Crafts Run were listed as impaired streams
for pH, aluminum, iron and manganese in 2002.
Coresco has three active National Pollutant Discharge Elimination
System permits to discharge to Crafts Run and Robinson, one for a
preparation plant and two for refuse disposal areas. According to
the Downstream Strategies report, Coresco intends to revise its
permits to allow more coal combustion and waste refuse in the
Robinson Run area.
"The rationale for using it there is that it treats acid mine
drainage, but if you look at the new permits that are being
requested, they're basically using that site -- proposing to use
that site -- as a very large landfill for coal combustion wastes,"
Hansen said. "In other words, they're going to pile it very high
and put very large amounts there."
The suit alleges that due to action by Mepco, Crafts Run has
become "biologically degraded." Sampling of the stream found that
as the streams pass through property of the two companies, levels
of pollution that stress animal and plant life in the streams
increase.
"The pollution must originate at Coresco and Mepco because there
are no other significant discharges to the stream and company data
shows that the headwaters of Crafts Run are low in (total
dissolved solids) and conductivity, but the concentration
increases to harmful levels as the stream passes through Mepco
property and past Coresco-operated refuse disposal facilities,"
the letter claims.
The violations, the group asserts, are believed by the groups to
be ongoing violations of the Clean Water Act. If corrective
actions have already been taken, the notice states, they are
asking Coresco or Mepco to notify the groups threatening to sue.
The letter also invites both companies to meet with the plaintiffs
to attempt to resolve the issues outlined.