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.