CONSOL Moves on Plant
Treatment plant will be built near Blacksville No. 2
Morgantown Dominion Post
10 April 2011
By Cassie Shaner
A copy of CONSOL’S application will be available for review until May
28 at the DEP’s regional office in Philippi and the county clerks’
offices in Monongalia, Marion and Harrison counties during regular
business hours.
WRITTEN COMMENTS on the application can be sent to the permit
supervisor at the West Virginia Department of Environmental Protection,
105 S. Railroad St., Suite 301, Philippi, WV 26416-1150.
CONSOL Energy is progressing with plans for a $200 million water
pipeline and treatment plant near its Blacksville No. 2 mine. CONSOL
filed an application with the state Department of Environmental
Protection (DEP) seeking a permit revision that will allow the company
to add and operate the pipeline and treatment plant.
The DEP is reviewing the application and accepting written comments
until May 28.
CONSOL agreed to build the pipeline and treatment plant in a settlement
agreement with the Department of Justice, the U.S. Environmental
Protection Agency (EPA) and the state DEP. According to settlement
documents, CONSOL violated the state and federal Water Pollution
Control acts by repeatedly exceeding pollution discharge limits.
“Their discharges were exceeding their limits, and it was determined
that the best way to deal with that was to construct this treatment
facility, which will take the discharges from the various coal mines
and pipe the water into the treatment plant,” DEP spokeswoman Kathy
Cosco said. “That treatment plant will only release treated water into
the waters of the state.”
Brandon Elliott, vice president of investor and public relations for
CONSOL Energy, said the reverse osmosis treatment facility will be
constructed near the Blacksville No. 2 mine, but also will treat water
from its Robinson Run No. 95 and Loveridge No. 22 mines in Harrison and
Marion counties respectively.
He said CONSOL is in the “very final stages” of negotiating a contract
for construction. That task must be completed by April 15, according to
settlement documents.
Construction must begin by July 11, but Elliott wasn’t sure of the
exact start date.
“Sometime this summer, dirt will begin to be moved,” he said.
Property and right-ofway acquisition for the pipeline must be finished
by Aug. 2, and the final design of the treatment plant must be
completed by Aug. 5.
Construction of the pipeline and treatment plant must be finished by
Jan. 21, 2013.
CONSOL also agreed to pay $5.5 million civil penalties as part of the
settlement. That money will be divided between the federal government
and the DEP, which plans to put its money in the state’s water quality
management fund.