| By Bob Weaver
Abingdon, Virginia-based coal producer Alpha Natural Resources with West Virginia holdings has agreed to pay $750,000 to settle 300 water pollution cases with the WV Department of Environmental Protection.
Alpha is the mover and shaker in a Mingo County school consolidation, which closes four widely-spread high schools, causing students to travel long distances to a new school on a strip site owned by the company.
The strip site and proposed Mingo Consolidated High School is about eight to ten miles off a paved road along the slow-moving King Coal Highway, which at current rates, could take 50 years to build.
Alpha is donating the land in lieu of reclamation, and the State of WV is contracting with Alpha to build a section of the King Coal Highway, although the coal outfit has never been in the road building business.
The EPA agreement covers Clean Water Act violations by 11 subsidiaries.
The Alpha settlement follows a high-profile lawsuit accusing Richmond, Va.-based coal producer Massey Energy of thousands of water pollution violations in West Virginia and Kentucky.
That lawsuit and a subsequent $20 million-dollar settlement shocked the industry.
The state's major coal companies have generally ignored the payment of environmental fines, most of which have led to water pollution.
See also Follow The Bucks In Mingo Consolidation Battle-A Non-Stop Freight Train
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