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Groups Put Kentucky Coal Company on Notice for Polluting Local Waterways with Toxic Selenium
Case Updates:
January 21, 2011
On January 20, 2011, Sierra Club and Kentuckians For The Commonwealth took action to hold another Kentucky coal company accountable for its pollution of local waterways. The environmental groups sent a notice-of-intent-to-sue letter to coal mining company Leeco, Inc., for allegedly releasing toxic selenium pollution into several waterways in Letcher County – including Bull Creek, Montgomery Creek, Defeated Creek, Upper Lick Branch, and associated tributaries – without a permit, in violation of the Clean Water Act and the Surface Mining Control and Reclamation Act. The company’s own water monitoring reports, filed with the Kentucky Division of Water, show that its coal mines are discharging harmful quantities of the pollutant.
Selenium, a toxic element that causes reproductive failure and deformities in fish and other forms of aquatic life, is discharged from many surface coal mining operations across Appalachia. At very high levels, selenium can pose a risk to human health, causing hair and fingernail loss, kidney and liver damage, and damage to the nervous and circulatory systems.
This latest action follows a similar notice letter sent to ICG Hazard in early December for selenium pollution from its mine in Leslie County. Selenium pollution is quickly emerging as a major issue of concern for streams and communities below surface coal mines. Citizen groups have filed several recent enforcement actions against coal mine operators in West Virginia that seek to hold those companies accountable for their selenium discharge violations. In September, a federal judge ordered Patriot Coal Corporation to post $45 million in secured credit to cover the anticipated cost of treating selenium at two of its surface coal mines in West Virginia.
Sierra Club is represented by Joe Lovett and Derek Teaney with the Appalachian Center for the Economy and the Environment and Mary Cromer with Appalachian Citizens' Law Center.
To read more about Sierra Club’s work to stop toxic selenium pollution from surface coal mining in Appalachia, click here!
Details and Documents:
Groups Put Kentucky Coal Company on Notice for Polluting Local Waterways with Toxic Selenium
January 21, 2011, Sierra Club Press Release
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