The Sierra Club and the West Virginia Highlands Conservancy just announced that they plan to sue CONSOL Energy to try to force the company to "stop releasing harmful pollution" into Dunkard Creek.
For the complete article, including quotes by Sierra's Jim Kotcon and WVHC's Cindy Rank, click on: http://blogs.wvgazette.com/coaltattoo/2010/02/25/dunkard-creek-update-citize...
According to a news release issued by the groups:
"Consol's own instream monitoring data show that for years chloride pollution from its operations has exceeded water quality standards. That pollution contributed to a toxic golden algae bloom that killed nearly all the aquatic life in a 35-mile stretch of Dunkard Creek last year on the Pennsylvania border with northern West Virginia."
Jim Hecker, environmental enforcement director at Public Justice, is representing the citizen groups along with Derek Teaney of the Appalachian Center for the Economy and the Environment. Hecker said: "The recent Dunkard Creek fish kill was the same wake-up call for the coal industry that the Exxon Valdez spill was for the oil industry."