This news story originally provided by Appalachian News Expree

December 14, 2005

Sidney Coal cited by state

BY RACHEL C. STANLEY
EDITOR

A Pike County coal company with a history of blackwater spill citations has been charged again with fouling a local stream.

Sidney Coal Co. was cited by the Kentucky Division of Mine Reclamation and Enforcement this week for discharging muddy water into Fraley Branch near Sidney, state officials said.

According to a press release, two DMRE field personnel on routine inspection noticed muddy water in the stream and traced it to Sidney Coal. They reported that the sediment plume was visible for 1.5 miles downstream and had reached Big Creek, a tributary of the Tug Fork of the Big Sandy River.

According to the DMRE, the company had been removing a sediment pond when an embankment was breached and water high in suspended solids entered the stream.

State officials issued an imminent danger cessation order, followed by notices of noncompliance on Dec. 12 for violating water quality standards and failing to construct and certify Pond #1 before disturbing the watershed.

State officials are assessing civil penalties for the discharge.

Big Creek suffered three blackwater spills in just two weeks last July, for which state officials cited the Sidney Coal and the Long Fork Coal prep plants.

Both Sidney Coal and Long Fork Coal are subsidiaries of Massey Energy, based in Richmond, Va.

Sidney Coal was also cited in April 2002 for a slurry spill that left 135,000 gallons of coal sludge in local streams. State officials inspected the company after a slurry pipe broke, blacking waters for miles in Pike and Martin counties and in part of West Virginia.

The company was then cited in March 2003 for a slurry spill that sent an estimated 5,000 to 10,000 gallons of slurry into Big Creek, then onto the Tug River.

Editor Rachel C. Stanley can be reached via e-mail at rstanley@news-expressky.com.