The Federal Government is suing Richmond, VA based Massey Energy for thousands of violations of the Clean Water Act. The feds are suing over massive pollution discharges into the waterways of West Virginia and Kentucky. They are suing for damages between $27,500 and $32,500 per day of violation for 4,633 violations over the past six years. This means that Massey has 69,000 days worth of violations and some simple math makes this around a $2 billion lawsuit. For more information, read this article
Massey Energy has long been the target of public anger, whether due to it’s long history of union-busting or it’s long history of blowing up Appalachia’s mountain ranges to get at the coal. If you measure by revenue, Massey is currently the fourth-largest coal extraction company in the United States.
This suit comes at a time when Massey is also being sued by the widows of the miners killed in the 2006 fire at Massey’s Aracoma mine for safety violations (read this article). The Wheeling-Pittsburg Steel Company has a multi-million dollar suit against Massey for failing to ship enough coal to the steel company (read this article). The Ohio Valley Environmental Coalition is also suing fellow mountaintop removal company Arch Coal for violating the Clean Water Act through dumping the blown up mountain’s rock (”overburden”) into valleys creating valley fills (read this article).
The results of these lawsuits have a great impact to impact how coal is mined in Appalachia. The more expensive coal is to mine, the harder it is for coal to compete with renewable energies.
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Forgive my ignorance, but where did the 69000 number come from?
its an approximation of the days of massey’s water quality violations, being that two water quality violations on the same day would be 2 days worth of violations. So, the number of days of violations would be more than the number of days on a calendar.
“Federal prosecutors allege that Massey Energy Co. and its subsidiaries have illegally poured pollutants into West Virginia and Kentucky waterways about 4,633 times within the past six years ‚Äî roughly 69,071 days‚Äô worth of violations of the U.S. Clean Water Act.”
-Ken Ward’s Charleston Gazette article: “Massey Sued By Feds” 5/12/2007
yes, but the article says 4,633 violations. even at 2 days of violations, isn’t that 9,266 days? again, please forgive my ignorance, but i’m just not familiar with the way these laws are structured and I would very much like to understand. thanks
What does it matter except for the amount of the fines, how many days they polluted. 69 minutes, 69 days 69,000 hrs? Who cares? They are polluters and they don’t care. they are always trying to water down the law and never try to jump on the green bandwagon, not unless its the green money bandwagon. Don B. is a loser and he is taking the shareholders for a ride.