Patriot Coal slammed on selenium from MTR operations

There's been a significant legal victory for opponents of mountaintop removal mining and the water pollution that comes with it.  A federal judge ordered Patriot Coal to clean up selenium pollution from two mines in West Virginia and made it stick by ordering the company to post a $45 million letter of credit to make sure it pays the cleanup costs.  (Probably a good move, since the company seemingly ignored the judge's 2009 consent decree requiring cleanup of these sites.) 

Why is this a big deal? The heavy metal selenium is often released into waterways in MTR/valley fill operations.  At high enough concentrations, it's toxic to people, but it is also highly toxic to fish and other aquatic life even at relatively low concentrations.  As Rob Perks notes in this issue paper, it "has been found downstream of some mountaintop mining sites at levels over 15 times the threshold for toxic bioaccumulation, causing deformation and reproductive failure in fish. Once polluted by selenium, an aquatic habitat remains difficult, if not impossible to restore." 

This ruling is one more step forward in making mining companies accountable, legally and financially, for the very real costs of mountaintop removal mining.  Congratulations to the groups that brought the suit: the Ohio Valley Environmental Coalition, Sierra Club, and West Virginia Highlands Conservancy, represented by the Appalachian Center for the Economy and the Environment.

Patriot's response? Now they're going to focus instead on efforts to weaken water quality standards in West Virginia.  Classy.