A&G Looney Ridge Lawsuit Settlement
A&G Coal Corp. has settled a lawsuit by agreeing to the terms for reclaiming three Wise County strip mines.
The company, owned by West Virginia Gov. Jim Justice and his family, has agreed to complete reclamation of Looney Ridge Surface Mine #1 by Aug. 31 of this year, according to a press release from three environmental groups that sued the company last year. A&G agreed to reclaim the Canepatch surface mine by Feb. 29, 2024, and to reclaim the Sawmill Hollow #3 mine by Dec. 31, 2025.
The deadlines are later than those imposed in a 2014 agreement with the Virginia Department of Energy, but “compliance is now enforceable by a court order,” the release notes.
Also, the company will face penalties of $37,500 if it fails to meet interim deadlines and will face penalties of $75,000 at each site for failure to meet final deadlines. Further, violating deadlines will result in “a prohibition on coal removal at the three sites,” the release states.
Finally, A&G will set aside revenue from the mined coal in a reclamation escrow account, up to $600,000.
The three mines, first permitted in 2004, have disturbed more than 3,300 acres, according to Southern Appalachian Mountain Stewards, Appalachian Voices and the Sierra Club. The groups said that according to Virginia Energy data, slightly more than 900 acres had been regraded and revegetated, with most of that work done nearly a decade ago. During their first decade, the mines produced an average of about 1.5 million tons per year, but production fell sharply after that to none in recent years, the groups said.
The groups told A&G of their intent to sue in May 2022.
At that time, they said there had been no mining at Looney Ridge, situated at the foot of Black Mountain near Appalachia, since spring 2013.