On March 19 in the US District Court for the Southern District of West Virginia, the company entered into a consent decree with the Ohio Valley Environmental Coalition and the West Virginia Highlands Conservancy for claims the groups entered regarding Patriot’s Apogee and Hobet complexes.
The settlement extends the deadline for selenium effluent limitations compliance at outfalls from June 30 of this year to April 5, 2010.
In addition to a $50,000 penalty and financial responsibility for the plaintiffs’ attorney fees and other costs, Patriot agreed to commence work on a pilot project that utilises reverse osmosis technology to determine the feasibility – both technically and economically – of selenium treatment in coal mining. The company estimates the latter will cost about $350,000 over the project’s lifespan.
According to Patriot, Hobet is now known as the Corridor G complex and Apogee is now referred to as Logan County; both include surface operations. Patriot was established as a spin-off company from Peabody Energy in 2007 so that Peabody could focus primarily on its western reserves.
Last month Reuters reported the company agreed to a $6.5 million settlement for more than 1400 permit violations at its West Virginia complexes between January 2003 and December 2007.
In total, Patriot operates 15 active mining complexes in Appalachia and the Illinois Basin and controls about 1.8 billion tons of proven and probable reserves.
