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.