Warrior Met Coal in Tuscaloosa County, one of the leading producers of metallurgical coal in the United States, will pay $250,000 as part of a settlement agreement to fix a coal slurry impoundment and stop discharging polluted wastewater into a tributary of Texas Creek, which eventually flows into the Black Warrior River.
“Texas Creek and Davis Creek, regularly enjoyed by locals and wildlife, deserve the utmost protections afforded by law,” Nelson Brooke of Black Warrior Riverkeeper said in a news release. “Holding Warrior Met Coal accountable for their unpermitted coal slurry wastewater discharges is Black Warrior Riverkeeper’s role, given that state regulatory agencies were asleep at the wheel on this one.”
On Wednesday, U.S. District Judge L. Scott Coogler signed off on a settlement agreement and consent decree between Warrior Met Coal and Black Warrior Riverkeeper, ending the environmental advocacy group’s lawsuit against the company.
Black Warrior Riverkeeper sued Warrior Met Coal in 2022 in U.S. District Court for the Northern District of Alabama, alleging that the company violated the federal Clean Water Act and state mining regulations after a coal slurry impoundment (a collection of coal waste held in a retaining pond) at one of its mines leaked wastewater polluted with coal mining waste into an unnamed tributary of Texas Creek.
In their complaint, Black Warrior Riverkeeper noted it documented 21 leaks from the impoundment from 2021 to 2022.
According to the text of the settlement agreement, Warrior Met Coal will now have to limit and monitor discharges from the impoundment. In 2023, WMC prepared an “immediate action plan” to address discharge from the impoundment; as part of the agreement, it will have to analyze the proposed IAP, which has to be approved by the federal Mine Safety and Health Administration, according to the news release.
Warrior Met Coal also agreed to bring the impoundment under the Alabama Dam Safety Program, a voluntary statewide program that allows for additional monitoring and regulation by the local emergency management agency.
Warrior Met Coal will pay the Freshwater Land Trust $250,000 for the implementation of a “supplemental environmental project” in the Davis Creek “subwatershed” of the Black Warrior River. Texas Creek is a tributary of Davis Creek, which is a tributary of the Black Warrior River.
In addition, Warrior Met Coal agreed to reimburse Black Warrior Riverkeeper $28,000 in legal fees.
“This case is a textbook example of why citizen suits are a critical enforcement mechanism when governments fail to enforce the law,” Eva Dillard, staff attorney with Black Warrior Riverkeeper, said.
“We are pleased that WMC was willing to take responsibility for the problems at Mine No. 7 and establish a [Supplemental Environmental Plan] that will give back to Davis Creek.”
Warrior Met Coal is the 20th largest coal production company in the United States, producing about 1.1% of the country’s total coal in 2022, according to the U.S. Energy Information Administration. The company owns three mines in Tuscaloosa County, according to its website, and employs more than 1,100 people.
From 2021 to 2023, members of the United Mine Workers of America were on strike at Warrior Met Coal in what is believed to be the longest strike in Alabama’s history. The strike is over but the UMWA and WMC continue to negotiate a new contract.
WMC produces metallurgical coal, which is used in the production of steel, something that has become an increasingly important part of the state’s economy. A study from the Alabama Mining Association found that, in 2018, metallurgical coal exports counted for 50% of the Port of Mobile’s revenue for that year.
Last year, Gov. Kay Ivey allocated $20 million to the Alabama Port Authority for upgrades at the McDuffie Coal Terminal, to shift it from an import terminal to an export terminal.
Warrior Met Coal did not respond to a request by AL.com for comment prior to publication of this story.
