State regulators here in West Virginia have made public another in their series of Clean Water Act settlements with the coal industry.
This one involves CONSOL of Kentucky operation in Mingo County, W.Va., and includes a nearly $215,000 fine.
(Recall that the state Department of Environmental Protection issues cryptic public notices about these settlements, and does not post the documents on its Web site. So Coal Tattoo will post this one here).
This deal is part of a movement by DEP and the coal industry to resolve water pollution violations never previously cited by DEP, and avoid federal government enforcement actions or citizen group lawsuits. Industry officials began approaching DEP to work out these deals after Massey Energy paid a record $20 million to settle a water pollution lawsuit brought against it by the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency. EPA sued Massey over thousands of water pollution violations that DEP never cited because state officials for roughly five years did not review water pollution monitoring reports that coal companies file every month.
Folks who followed these deals may recall a previous one with various subsidiaries of CONSOL Energy that involved $400,000 in fines. But this new one involves permits that CONSOL acquired as of Jan. 1, 2009, when it assumed ownership of Southern West Virginia Resources LLC, according to DEP’s chief inspector, Mike Zeto.
This settlement involves 111 minor, 44 moderate and 3 major violations of permit limits at operations in Mingo County.
DEP is accepting public comments on the deal through June 4. Comments can be submitted to Chief Inspector/WVDEP/Environmental Enforcement, 601 57th Street, S.E., Charleston, W.Va., 25304. Their phone number is (304) 926-0470.
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Whopee, another violation (settlement) deal — the way the system works.
Cheaper to pay than to comply, especially when the penalty (not tax deductable) becomes performing work (deductable business expense) that has to be done anyways.
Everybody looks good, everybody is happy and everybody is saving money, but the environment continues to lose.
The WV DEP is a joke and everybody in this State of WV and the country who is paying attention knows it.
Thank you to Ken Ward for making this coal friendly deal more open and viewable to the public. I would like to see the federal EPA nullify the WV DEP and take over this failed agency. This is yet another prime example of why that should happen. The state of WV has missed out on millions and millions of dollars by failure to assess these water pollution penalties. For the Secretary to say that it was an oversight is inexcusable, and now to settle for pennies on the dollar is even more inexcusable. The WV DEP has not acted in the best interest of our state and should be disbanded. This agency far too long has protected the coal industry from proper enforcement at the cost of exposing mountain communities to the dangers of poisoned water and air. It’s time to begin anew.
Just in case a reader might not realize it, the water samples are taken (several times per month) and reported (qtrly) by the coal company or its designated party. Inspectors only spot check certain outflows on the permit. I don’t know why the DEP doesn’t have the inspector responsible for timely review of the submitted reports (DMR’s).
Thanks, Casey. You’re right — some readers might not realize this.
What I don’t understand is why WVDEP didn’t just have a computer program set up all along to run through the DMRs each quarter and spit out a list of violations … instead, they just weren’t looking at them at all.
This episode certainly undercuts the idea that coal is heavily regulated and inspected.
Ken.
[...] way of background, recall that the coal industry went to WVDEP to try to start working out these deals after the federal EPA won a record $20 million settlement for Clean Water Act permit violations by [...]
The WVDEP don’t have enough Inspectors to regulate properly, and they are losing Inspectors at an alarming rate due to the fact its not a good paying job(no money since the Wise administration). The DEP Inspection Department is in a constant state of trianing, but once the Inspector is trianed and gets some experiance on the job, they move on to Industry for more money($24-$25 per hour). A water truck driver on a job site makes more money per hour($16-$18 per hour) than the Inspector. There are Inspectors that have been at the DEP for over 8 years that are still at the starting pay, would you stay? They don’t allow overtime, and the Inspectors have to get their job done within the 8 hour day, but the Coal Industry works Day and Night, until we take care of our Inspectors, we are going to continue to have inexperianced Inspectors who have no real trianing in the field, trying to regulate the BIG COAL INDUSTRY. Pay them what they should get and keep them, so WV can have good Mine Inspectors in the Field.