In a settlement with the U.S. Dept. of Justice and Environmental Protection Agency, Alpha Natural Resources Inc., a major U.S. coal company, has agreed to pay a record $27.5 million in civil fines and spend about $160 million for projects to curb discharges of pollutants from its mines in five Eastern states.
Under a consent decree filed on March 5 in federal district court in Charleston, W.Va., the company, based in Bristol, Va., will settle thousands of permit violations between 2006 and 2013. The settlement covers about 79 mines and 25 processing plants.