Two More West Virginia Coal Mines Found Contaminating Local Waterways

HUNTINGTON, WV-- Today, the Sierra Club, Ohio Valley Environmental Coalition, West Virginia Highlands Conservancy and West Virginia Rivers Coalition filed a lawsuit against Southeastern Land, LLC, and Fola Coal Company, LLC.,for polluting streams from two of their surface coal mines in West Virginia, the Peachorchard and Ike Fork mines. The lawsuit, filed in federal court in Huntington, alleges that runoff from the mines has contaminated two waterways with sulfate and other dissolved solids that are harmful to aquatic life: Peachorchard Branch, a tributary of Twentymile Creek that eventually flows into the Gauley River, and Sycamore Branch, a tributary of Lily Creek that eventually flows into the Elk River.

The legal strategy used in this lawsuit has successfully obtained five previous court orders which have required mining companies to clean up contaminated mine runoff that biologically impaired eight other West Virginia streams.  In all of these cases, the groups contend that the mining companies have violated West Virginia’s “narrative” water quality standards, which set general criteria to protect water quality from physical, chemical and biological impairments.  The U.S. Court of Appeals for the Fourth Circuit affirmed the federal enforceability of those standards in a January 2017 decision.

The ionic pollutants at issue at the Ike Fork and Peachorchard Surface Mines – measured through the electrical conductivity of water samples – are discharged by virtually every mine in Appalachia that utilizes valley fills. These pollutants, identified through electrical conductivity measurements, are extremely harmful to aquatic life in streams, and also serve as an indicator of other possible pollution problems. Both mines were previously owned by Consol Energy Inc. which paid Southeastern Land LLC $44 million in 2016 to take the mines off their hands and assume liability for issues including that of stream contamination. Community members understand that these  contaminants are just one more reason on an already too-long list for why these mines endanger the land, water, and Appalachian people.  

The action was brought against Southeastern Land and Fola Coal by Sierra Club, Ohio Valley Environmental Coalition, West Virginia Highlands Conservancy, and West Virginia Rivers Coalition. The groups are represented by attorneys with Appalachian Mountain Advocates and Public Justice.

In response,

“We hope the Court will hold Fola accountable for cleaning up the mess they’ve made.” said Jim Kotcon, Chapter Chair for the West Virginia Chapter of the Sierra Club. “West Virginia taxpayers will not be left to foot the bill and the burden of repairing the environmental degradation left behind by coal mining. We will continue to fight for the health of the land and people we call home.”

"The many mining operations that sprawl over this area of Clay and Nicholas Counties have not only consumed homes and small rural communities​ but are now destroying stream life, degrading irreplaceable headwater streams. and endangering the biologically diverse and rich ecosystem of the Elk River itself," said Cindy Rank, Mining Chair of the West Virginia Highlands Conservancy. "​Fola Coal Company must be compelled to accept responsibility for clean up."

“Mountaintop removal ruins our waters, plain and simple, and that impacts human health. This extreme form of coal mining should have been outlawed long ago. But it continues, and the pollution continues. Coal corporations must be held accountable,” said Ohio Valley Environmental Coalition Vice Director, Vivian Stockman.

“Each day I look at the Elk River, I wonder how close it is to its tipping point -- when it will be beyond recovery from the stress of the repeated mining pollution violations from Fola,” said Angie Rosser, Executive Director of the West Virginia Rivers Coalition. “One of the major tributaries feeding into the river is already unable to adequately support aquatic life. Sampling has shown that the Elk River itself is starting to suffer effects. We don’t want to see the Elk River added to the list of West Virginia’s rivers that ‘used to be healthy’. We’re saying: Correct it now, before it’s too late.”