Environmentalists allege pollution at West Virginia mine

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CHARLESTON, West Virginia (AP) A group of environmentalists said on Tuesday it intended to sue West Virginia over evidence of pollutants flowing into waterways from a mine coal.

In a letter to the West Virginia Department of Environmental Protection, the group alleges Clean Water Act violations at a coal mine site managed by the state agency in Clay and Nicholas counties, in central West Virginia.

The Sierra Club, West Virginia Highlands Conservancy and the West Virginia Rivers Coalition are part of the notice of intention to sue.

They claim that there have been 780 violations of license limits for pH, iron and aluminum since October 2016 at the Greendale Coals site. Based on the dismal compliance history on this site, it appears that WVDEP never built the necessary processing system or failed to get it to work properly, wrote Derek Teaney, the organizations lawyer, in the letter.

The lawsuit would be the last legal attempt to improve conditions at the former Appalachian mining sites. As more and more coal mines close their doors, the reclamation process is crucial to preventing environmental pollution and returning the land to its habitat. Contaminants can enter waterways and harm wildlife if not handled properly after a mine closes.

Yet funds are often scarce and many closed mines are still waiting to be cleared.

In May, a group that included the Sierra Club filed a lawsuit to seek to force the federal government to tackle West Virginia’s underfunded mine reclamation bond fund.

A legislative audit earlier this month found that West Virginia’s mine reclamation fund is financially faltering due to falling bond income and has no known back-up plan if it becomes insolvent.

Among several recommendations, the auditor called on the ministry not to approve license renewal applications for companies that have not paid taxes for the special reclamation fund. Its review found that 70 mining companies that filed coal recovery tax returns were overdue by a total of $ 5.3 million.

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