A coal company that is leaking polluted wastewater from a mine in west Alabama reached a legal agreement with an environmental group to fix a dam and protect local waterways in Tuscaloosa County.
Warrior Met Coal owns several coal mines in Alabama, including one that is leaking discharges into a local tributary without a permit. Black Warrior Riverkeeper, a non-profit, sued Warrior Met Coal in 2022 over the pollution from the mine in Tuscaloosa County.
On Tuesday the company and the non-profit announced they are proposing a consent decree in federal court. The court has 45 days to approve the decree after a comment period for the U.S. Department of Justice.
The decree requires the company to fix leaks from the mine’s roughly 160-acre coal slurry impoundment, an area with a barrier to prevent pollution from underground mining and coal preparation from escaping.
“It’ll help the local stream and everybody that uses it downstream and it’ll also avoid the potential for a catastrophic failure of their large impoundment’s dam,” said Nelson Brooke with Black Warrior Riverkeeper.
A representative for Warrior Met Coal did not immediately respond to a request for comment.
The decree also requires the company to create a plan to install a liner to fix a leaky dam that holds millions of gallons of coal slurry. The plan must be approved by the federal Mining Safety and Health Administration. The company will be responsible for monitoring the success of the liner in preventing the escaping pollutants.
The company will also enroll in the state’s Dam Safety Program which involves inspections and standards for the impoundment.
Brooke said he was first alerted to the existence of the pollution from the mine by local residents. The polluted wastewater is running into Texas Creek, which is a tributary of Davis Creek, which flows into the Black Warrior River at Holt Lake, according to a press release put out by the Black Warrior Riverkeepers,
Warrior Met Coal agreed to pay $250,000 to the Freshwater Land Trust to create a supplemental environmental project to address some of the damage from the pollution. The company will pay Black Warrior Riverkeeper $28,000 for attorney’s fees.
