Massey Energy paying record penalty for water pollution, stemming from huge coal-slurry spill

Massey Energy Co. will pay a record $20 million "for polluting streams around its coal mines in Kentucky and West Virginia," and "spend another $10 million to prevent future problems," reports Andy Mead of the Lexington Herald-Leader.

The civil penalty is the largest ever for violating wastewater discharge permits, and "stems from the massive, 300-million-gallon slurry spill in Martin County, Ky., in October 2000, often described as the southeastern United States' worst environmental disaster, as well as 4,500 violations of Clean Water Act permits at mines in the two states," writes James Bruggers of The (Louisville) Courier-Journal. The spill was "by far the worst offense," the Herald-Leader reports. (Photo of slurry pond by H-L's Charles Bertram)

The lawsuit filed by the Environmental Protection Agency last May charged that Massey "discharged excess amounts of metals, sediment and acid mine drainage into hundreds of rivers and streams in the two states," Mead writes. Many of the violations exceeded limits by 40 percent, "with some pollutants discharged at levels more than 10 times their limit, the government said," Bruggers notes.

Massey, headed by Don Blankenship, left, is based in Richmond, Va., and is the largest producer of coal in Appalachia and fourth largest in the nation. It has about 33 underground mines and 11 strip mines in Kentucky, Virginia and West Virginia, EPA said. To read the consent decree between the firm and the Department of Justice, click here.