DEP expected to allow Florida-based coal company to walk away from water pollution at Marmet

Kanawha Forest Coalition and Appalachian Voices object to bond release for KD#1 surface mine

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
Feb. 17, 2025

Contact:
Chad Cordell
Kanawha Forest Coalition
KanawhaForestCoalition@gmail.com

CHARLESTON, W.Va. — The West Virginia Department of Environmental Protection appears poised to release Keystone West Virginia, LLC, a Florida-based coal company, from its obligation to treat ongoing acid mine drainage originating at the KD #1 Surface Mine. A public comment period on the pending decision concluded on Saturday.

The strip mine covers 160 acres along the edge of Kanawha State Forest near Marmet. The DEP and Keystone have been aware of acid mine drainage leaving the mine and flowing into Lens Creek since at least 2017 when members of the Kanawha Forest Coalition documented the issue during a citizen inspection of the mine.

Before operating a coal mine, a mining company must secure reclamation bonds. These are financial instruments that regulators may access in order to fund mine cleanup if the company fails to properly conduct reclamation. When a company believes it has adequately reclaimed a mine, it applies for “bond release.” When regulators grant bond release, they are relieving a mining company of any future responsibility for environmental cleanup at a mine site.

Though bond release generally happens in stages, Keystone has applied for full bond release for most of the KD #1 Surface Mine, including the area where the acid mine drainage originates, prompting objections from Kanawha Forest Coalition and Appalachian Voices.

“Despite numerous complaints regarding this non-compliant discharge from the permit over the past eight years, the agency has consistently failed to take any enforcement action and the discharge continues unabated,” wrote Chad Cordell of the Kanawha Forest Coalition in a letter to DEP sent Friday on behalf of both organizations. 

Addressing DEP inspector Bret Stutler, Cordell wrote, “when we accompanied you to the permit in January 2024 (the last time Keystone requested bond release), we again brought this unlawful discharge to your attention. You refused to take a water sample that day despite previously telling us you would be taking samples of all raw water sources within the permit boundary.”

West Virginia law states that, “no bond release or reduction will be granted if, at the time, water discharged from or affected by the operation requires chemical or passive treatment in order to comply with applicable effluent limitations or water quality standards,” (§38-2-12.2.e of the WV Surface Mining Rule). 

The acid mine discharge at issue in Kanawha Forest Coalition’s objection originates within the permit area, meaning it is “discharged from… the operation,” as described in state law. Additionally, the acid mine drainage was never documented prior to the KD #1 strip mine’s existence, strongly suggesting the polluted water is also “affected by the operation.”

In 2017, at the urging of Kanawha Forest Coalition, DEP conducted a limited investigation into the cause of the acid mine drainage. At that time, DEP did not establish a clear link between the acid mine drainage and the water in the nearest mine runoff ditch constructed by Keystone. Rather than investigate potential groundwater links between the mine, or indeed any other explanation for the acid mine seep, DEP ended its investigation and has never held Keystone accountable for the ongoing water pollution. 

“It is obvious that the blasted rock fill of the surface mine above the seeps is the most likely source of the high concentrations of sulfate and metal ions in the seeps,” said Doug Wood, a former state water quality specialist who now volunteers with Kanawha Forest Coalition, in a 2021 letter to the DEP.

In January, DEP granted Keystone a permit revision in order to “facilitate bond release.” This revision removed one unvegetated area of the mine from consideration for bond release so that the majority of the mine could move forward with the process. 

Keystone West Virginia, LLC, is owned and managed by Tom Scholl, a long-time coal tycoon living in Fort Myers, Florida. Scholl’s operations have often been marked by regulatory problems and lawsuits. Despite DEP’s failure to hold Scholl accountable for acid mine drainage at KD #1, the mine has received 36 Notices of Violations and 12 Cessation Orders since it was first permitted. 

“Bond release is the agency’s last opportunity to ensure that a permit doesn’t leave a legacy of persistent, long-term, unabated water quality issues,” says Cordell. “When the agency isn’t doing everything possible to identify problems and have the permittee abate them, it’s doing a disservice to the public and failing to uphold both the law and its mission of environmental protection.”