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Coal companies charged with massive violations of water pollution laws in Kentucky
A coalition of environmental advocates took the first step today toward bringing a lawsuit against three mining operations in Kentucky for a staggering number of alleged violations of the Clean Water Act -- more than 20,000 in all.
The companies targeted are ICG Hazard and ICG Knott, subsidiaries of West Virginia-based International Coal Group, and Frasure Creek Mining, a subsidiary of West Virginia-based Trinity Coal, which was recently purchased by India's Essar Group. These are the largest producers of mountaintop removal-mined coal in Kentucky.
The companies have been sent intent-to-sue letters charging that they exceeded pollution discharge limits set by their state-issued operating permits, consistently failed to conduct the required monitoring of their discharges, and submitted false monitoring data to state agencies. Among the pollutants allegedly discharged at excessive levels include iron, total suspended solids, pH and manganese, ingestion of which can cause neurological problems resembling Parkinson's disease; some of the manganese exceedances are over 40 times the maximum allowable levels. The violations could bring federal fines totaling over $740 million.
"The sheer number of violations we found while looking over these companies' monitoring reports is astounding," said Donna Lisenby, the Upper Watauga Riverkeeper with North Carolina's Appalachian Voices, one of the groups involved in bringing suit. "These companies are making a mockery of their legal responsibility under the Clean Water Act and, more troubling, their moral obligation to the people of the state of Kentucky."