A coal supplier operating in Tennessee and four other states will pay a record fine for violating water pollution limits.
A deal filed yesterday in federal court proposes a record fine of $27.5 million to cover more than 6,200 water pollution violations.
Bristol, Virginia-based Alpha Natural Resources, Incorporated, is the nation’s third largest supplier of coal, operating in Pennsylvania, West Virginia, Virginia, Kentucky, and Tennessee.
Officials with the Environmental Protection Agency and the Justice Department say between 2006 and 2013, 79 mines and 25 coal processing facilities belonging to Alpha and its subsidiaries discharged heavy metals and other contaminants directly into rivers, streams and tributaries.
