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Federal Judge Mary Stanley has told a Massey Energy subsidiary to clean up its act.
She says Independence Coal Company in Boone County needs to improve its
terrible environmental record.
Stanley ordered the company to give a one-day bonus to the first employee who
reports future black-water spills, because residents downstream have reported
the last three spills.
Because of Massey's negative record, the judge had already ordered the company
to undergo annual environmental audits.
Meanwhile, West Virginia coal operators continue to strip mine more acres than
they reclaim, according to a federal Office of Surface Mining issued this week.
OSM said that 296,300 acres â an area nearly the size of Boone County â is
currently disturbed by mining.
A 32-page report said that coal companies last year received new permits for
nearly six times the area that they completely reclaimed during the same
period.
The amount of acreage abandoned by coal operators skyrocketed during this
year's nine-month study period, according to OSM.
Last year, OSM reported 146 acres of mining operators abandoned. This year, the
agency found 950 acres abandoned.
DEP officials are trying to erase a multi-million-dollar deficit in the state's program
to reclaim newly abandoned mines. But financial data released last week showed
their efforts will still end up in the red by 2006.
Tens of thousands of acres of strip mines have been a abandoned and not
reclaimed since the practice began in the 60s.There is little funding to deal will old mining problems.
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