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Thursday, September 02, 2010
Environment - "Environmental groups hail selenium ruling as 'game changer'"
So reads the headline to a story in the Charleston West Virigina Gazette, reported by Ken Ward Jr. Some quotes from the long story:
A federal judge's ruling that Patriot Coal must clean up toxic selenium pollution violations at two mines in Southern West Virginia is a "game changer" that could force the mining industry to bear far more of the full costs of its operations, environmental groups said Wednesday.If eventually applied across dozens of other mining operations and hundreds of water pollution outlets, the treatment required by the court decision could easily cost the industry hundreds of millions of dollars.
"This court order is a game changer in our fight to protect streams and communities in West Virginia and to hold coal mining companies accountable for their pollution," said Ed Hopkins, senior Washington, D.C., director of the Sierra Club.
Patriot Coal blasted the court decision as unnecessary and said the coal industry needs to focus on efforts to rewrite West Virginia's water quality rules to weaken the state's selenium limits.
"Looking forward, Patriot is assessing its position in these cases and will determine its actions after the written judgment has been received," Patriot President Richard M. Whiting said in a news release.
On Tuesday, U.S. District Judge Robert C. Chambers ruled against Patriot in two combined cases involving repeated selenium violations at the company's Ruffner Mine in Logan County and its Hobet 21 complex along the Boone-Lincoln County border.
Posted by Marcia Oddi on September 2, 2010 10:14 AM
Posted to Environment