Community groups ask judge to halt mining and hold A&G Coal in contempt for violating court-ordered mine clean-up deadlines

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
October 31, 2024

CONTACT
Dan Radmacher, Media Specialist, (540) 798-6683, dan@appvoices.org 

BIG STONE GAP, Va. — Today, three community groups — Southern Appalachian Mountain Stewards, Appalachian Voices and the Sierra Club — filed a motion to hold A&G Coal Company in contempt of court for failure to comply with a prior consent decree.

That January 2023 consent decree between A&G and the community groups, entered by the U.S. District Court for the Western District of Virginia, settled a lawsuit brought by the community groups to force A&G to correct long-standing environmental violations and complete reclamation on the Looney Ridge, Canepatch and Sawmill mountaintop removal mines in Wise County, Virginia, totaling more than 3,300 acres. Environmental law firm Appalachian Mountain Advocates filed the motion on behalf of the groups. 

Under the consent decree, A&G was required to abstain from coal removal at the three mines unless and until it achieved environmental compliance and to meet reclamation deadlines and maintain reclamation equipment in operational condition at the mines. Today’s motion details evidence that A&G has violated each of those requirements. 

In the legal filing, the community groups demonstrate that A&G has missed the reclamation deadlines for the Looney Ridge and Canepatch Surface Mines in August 2023 and February 2024, respectively, and is on track to miss the December 2025 deadline for the Sawmill Surface Mine. The motion cites state inspection reports that show the company has failed to even maintain the equipment necessary to complete reclamation. The state inspection reports also indicate that A&G has engaged in coal extraction at both the Looney Ridge and Canepatch mines and has declared an intention to continue doing so at the Canepatch mine. 

Today, A&G asked the court to allow the company to begin highwall mining at Sawmill Hollow. The contempt  motion asks the court to order A&G not to engage in coal removal at any of the three sites until it achieves compliance with the consent decree.

The groups’ motion asks the court to impose new requirements to compel A&G’s compliance with the consent decree, including an accounting of any mining activity on the three mines and monthly detailed compliance reports to be filed with the court. The groups are also asking that any revenue A&G may have generated by mining coal in violation of the consent decree be handed over to the Upper Tennessee River Roundtable, a local watershed group that is not party to the agreement, and that A&G be forced to pay at least $900,000 in penalties incurred under the terms of the consent decree as a result of missing deadlines and failing to maintain the required operational equipment. 

“A&G’s persistent failure to meet reclamation deadlines at these sites and their continued pursuit of coal extraction despite court orders show a blatant disregard for both environmental obligations and legal commitments,” says Matt Hepler, Environmental Scientist for Appalachian Voices. 

“Regulators have not been able to bring this company to heel for over a decade now, so it’s essential that the court enforce the terms of the consent decree, and grant the relief requested in our motion,” said Taysha DeVaughan, Executive Committee member at Southern Appalachian Mountain Stewards. 

A&G poses a unique challenge for Virginia’s coal mining enforcement program because state regulators took the company’s word that it was financially sound enough to clean up after itself. From its actions at these mines, it looks like that’s not the case.

Prior to commencing mining operations, coal companies usually post a bond. Regulators can use this bond to fund reclamation if a company fails to do so. Bonds generally take the form of assurances from a third-party financial institution or surety company, and/or pool bonds, which is when a company pays a fraction of the cost of reclamation into a collective fund that the state can use to reclaim mines when coal companies fail to do so. In those cases, the state seeks to use bonding funds outside of the pool first. A&G’s mines are primarily self-bonded, meaning the Virginia Department of Energy has very few resources, and even less leverage, to ensure timely reclamation and cleanup. A&G’s self-bonded permits were grandfathered in after Virginia stopped accepting self-bonds in 2015

According to a February 2024 study commissioned by the state, A&G’s total reclamation liability at all of its mines, not just these three, is around $190 million. This is well over the approximately $13 million in Virginia’s bond pool. The study, only recently made public, concluded that if A&G were to forfeit its mines to the state, the cost of reclamation would risk the solvency of the fund, leaving Virginia regulators with no funds from the pool available for future reclamation needs on other mines in the state.

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