Monday, January 11th 2010

Massey Energy has a bad reputation even in the dirty coal business and it's getting worse. A coalition of environmental groups is trying to get the company to come clean on over 12,000 violations of the Clean Water Act and surface mining laws in West Virginia.

This is an outrage. Where's the state and federal oversight?

The Sierra Club reported:

Massey has a long history of environmental and social irresponsibility-including one of the largest slurry spills ever to take place in the United States and a $1.5 million fine from the Mine Safety and Health Administration. In 2008 the company was fined $20 million for Clean Water Act violations, similar to those cited by the coalition, after the federal government documented over 4,600 cases of pollution being illegally dumped into local waters by Massey and its subsidiaries. Incredibly, Massey's violations have increased in frequency since its settlement with the federal government.

This comes just weeks after leading scientists determined that no amount of remediation could ever be enough to make up for the damage done by mountain top removal mining and the practice should be banned.

Dr Margaret Palmer of the University of Maryland Center for Environmental Science is quoted as saying: