The groups, which also include the West Virginia Highlands Conservancy and the Ohio Valley Environmental Coalition filed their complains Thursday in US District Court in Huntington.
The groups allege Fola’s MTR site runoff is pollution the Leatherwood Creek tributary of Right Fork with sulfate and other solids.
They said the headwater stream’s aquatic life was suffering.
The case runs closely parallel to two others the groups filed against Fola last year for a similar allegation regarding another waterway, Boardtree Branch in the Twentymile Creek watershed.
It ultimately settled with the producer to close out those claims.
“Some tributaries of Leatherwood Creek show significant damage to aquatic life compared to that in unpolluted streams,” Sierra Club officials said.
“Levels of conductivity measured in Right Fork have been five to ten times higher than levels shown to impair aquatic life. More than 60% of the land area in the Leatherwood Creek watershed has been permitted for coal mining.”
The second Fola suit is the environmentalists’ fifth active litigation against West Virginia coal miners. Its other open cases include the other against Fola as well as litigation against Alex Energy and Elk Run Coal.
So far, the groups have filed lawsuits targeting eight streams that it said are “biologically impaired by coal mining operations”, including Boardtree Branch, Mudlick Fork, Robinson Fork, Stillhouse Branch, Spruce Run, Road Fork, Cogar Hollow and Right Fork.
“Amazingly, at the same time data shows more and more streams harmed by coal mining, WVDEP [West Virginia Department of Environmental Protection] is interpreting a 2012 state statute so coal companies will no longer be responsible for preventing stream damage,” Sierra Club chapter chair Jim Sconyers said.
“Rather than forcing the mining companies to clean up the impaired streams, WVDEP is trying to let them off the hook … [s]o groups like ours have to do WVDEP’s job. We can't allow these companies to keep poisoning our streams.”
The groups’ counsel in this case are Jim Hecker at Public Justice and Joe Lovett and Derek Teaney of Appalachian Mountain Advocates.
Neither the WV DEP nor Fola Coal have made public comment regarding the suit.
