Alpha Agrees to Water Pollution Settlement

Alpha Natural Resources agreed to a settlement in a 2012 lawsuit, brought by the Sierra Club and other environmental groups, regarding high levels of conductivity found in streams at two of its mountaintop removal mining complexes in West Virginia.

The settlement includes no monetary penalties but would require Alpha to reduce pollution so that the streams either meet stricter requirements than set by state regulators or comply with a measure of conductivity designed by the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency.