CONSOL Unveils State Mine Water Treatment Plant
Charleston Gazette
11 July 2013
By The Associated Press
MANNINGTON, W.Va. -- CONSOL Energy is showing off a new treatment
plant that cleans up mine water from several underground coal
mines along the Pennsylvania-West Virginia border.
Gov. Earl Ray Tomblin was joining CONSOL officials today to
dedicate the facility near Mannington.
It uses reverse-osmosis technology to treat water from the
Blacksville No. 2, Loveridge and Robinson Run mines.
CONSOL voluntarily stopped discharging from two of those mines
into Dunkard Creek after thousands of fish, salamanders and
mussels died in 2009.
Federal regulators say it was the first documented case of golden
algae in the Mid-Atlantic states. Though the exact source wasn't
identified, CONSOL committed to building a centralized treatment
plant.
Last fall, the West Virginia Division of Natural Resources said
the 43-mile-long creek had rebounded, with 95 percent of all
species thriving.