A coalition of environmental and community groups are taking legal action to hold West Virginia accountable for cleaning up abandoned coal mine sites.

In two separate lawsuits, the West Virginia Highlands Conservancy, West Virginia Rivers Coalition and Sierra Club allege West Virginia is violating the Clean Water Act by allowing excessive amounts of pollutants to discharge from former coal mine sites in Barbour, Nicholas and Preston counties.

When mine operators in West Virginia go out of business before they complete all of the reclamation required by law, the groups explained, the state becomes responsible for finishing the cleanup, including managing any water pollution coming from the site. However, many coal mines in the state continue to generate harmful water pollution long after the mines are shut down, they continued.

“It is by now beyond question that coal mines — even reclaimed mines or mines in the process of reclamation — discharge harmful mining pollutants into West Virginia streams,” said Liz Wiles, Chair of West Virginia Sierra Club. “When the State of West Virginia takes responsibility for these toxic sites, it needs to do everything in its power to prevent them from threatening our communities and our clean water.”

The lawsuits, filed in two U.S. District Courts for West Virginia’s Northern and Southern districts April 20, allege seven former mine sites in the state are discharging excessive pollutants into various creeks and streams in the state.

The groups say this underscores the need for the DEP to require mine operators to pledge additional funds to cover the costs of reclamation or water treatment, in light of the recent, dramatic downturn of the coal industry that has thrown many mining companies into bankruptcy.

“By burying their heads in the sand these past two decades and ignoring how the looming crisis of bankrupt coal companies would further deplete the state's inadequate Special Reclamation Fund, West Virginia lawmakers have virtually guaranteed that citizens and taxpayers will be the ones responsible for cleaning up these coal company messes,” said Cindy Rank of the West Virginia Highlands Conservancy.        

However, DEP officials have previously told The State Journal that the high rate of bankruptcy filings does pose a threat to the state’s reclamation funds, but they’re not panicking yet.

“We have several companies in bankruptcy right now in West Virginia. Bankruptcy is a very complicated situation, but the fact that the company has filed for bankruptcy does not mean they’re forfeiting bonds,” said Harold Ward, acting mining director for the DEP's Division of Land Restoration. “We have bankruptcies more frequently than we would like to see, but we generally see a restructuring plan worked out.”