| CONSOL Energy Inc. has been ordered to pay $5.5 million in fines and build a $200 million treatment system to resolve water quality violations in 43-mile long Dunkard Creek, which originates in Pennsylvania and is a tributary of the Monongahela River.
The company has agreed to pay $500,000 to the West Virginia Department of Natural Resources for Clean Water Act violations at six mines in West Virginia.
The Dunkard Creek kill is considered to be one of the worst environmental fish kills in West Virginia, wiping out 40 species of fish and salamanders and the entire 14 species of mussels.
The company denies any wrongdoing and admits no liability.
Pennsylvania DEP officials say their research shows CONSOL Energy's Blacksville Number 2 Mine is the reason for the high total dissolved solids, or TDS that likely lead to the Dunkard Creek kill in 2009.
West Virginia environmental regulators and CONSOL blamed the fish kill on a non-native algae, but federal investigators said coal company discharges that were extremely high in salts created conditions that led to the environmental disaster.
In West Virginia, the state's EPA allowed CONSOL to continue their operation with their blessing.
In the agreement, CONSOL would complete and begin operating a "reverse osmosis" treatment plant so that discharges from four mining complexes in the area would meet state pollution limits for chlorides by May 30, 2013.
Federal and state officials joined CONSOL executives in praising the deal. The company called it a "groundbreaking Clean Water Act settlement" that would "set the highest standard for mine water treatment."
Dunkard Creek has been on the DEP's list of impaired streams since at least 2002. Over the last decade, DEP repeatedly gave CONSOL more time to fix its chlorides violations.
Federal officials allege in court documents that hundreds of chlorides violations by the company "created and/or contributed to the creation of conditions favorable for golden algae to thrive and bloom, which ultimately led to the fish kill."
The agreement specifically states that CONSOL admits no liability for the problem.
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