Judge: Justice must pay $2.5M for environmental violations
Advertisement
Read this article for free:
or
Already have an account? Log in here »
To continue reading, please subscribe:
Digital Subscription
One year of digital access for only $205*
- Enjoy unlimited reading on winnipegfreepress.com
- Read the E-Edition, our digital replica newspaper
- Access News Break, our award-winning app
- Play interactive puzzles
*First annual payment billed as $205.00 + GST for one year. This annual subscription will automatically renew at $233.00 + GST every 52 weeks (10% off the regular annual price of $259.35). Offer available to new and qualified returning subscribers only. Cancel any time.
To continue reading, please subscribe:
Add Free Press access to your Brandon Sun subscription for only an additional
$1 for the first 4 weeks*
- Enjoy unlimited reading on winnipegfreepress.com
- Read the E-Edition, our digital replica newspaper
- Access News Break, our award-winning app
- Play interactive puzzles
*Your next Brandon Sun subscription payment will increase by $1.00 and you will be charged $17.95 plus GST for four weeks. After four weeks, your payment will increase to $24.95 plus GST every four weeks.
Read unlimited articles for free today:
or
Already have an account? Log in here »
Hey there, time traveller!
This article was published 09/12/2021 (1738 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current.
CHARLESTON, W.Va. (AP) — West Virginia Gov. Jim Justice has lost another costly court ruling over his coal companies’ environmental violations.
A federal judge in Virginia ruled Southern Coal Corp. and two dozen other Justice-owned companies must pay $2.5 million in penalties and clean up mining sites in Tennessee.
Justice has long battled taxes, fines and court penalties in several states.
A joint filing by the U.S. Department of Justice, Alabama and Tennessee said the company violated a 2016 agreement for environment clean up, the Charleston Gazette-Mail reported.
The agreement, known as a consent decree, required Southern Coal Corp. and two-dozen other companies to pay a $900,000 civil penalty to resolve more than 23,000 water pollution violations.
Chief U.S. District Judge Michael Urbanski ruled Tuesday that the companies failed to maintain water pollution control permits in Alabama and Tennessee and failed to complete mine stabilization work at three Tennessee sites.
“We’re disappointed in the ruling and are considering our options going forward, certainly including an appeal,” Steven Ruby, an attorney for the Justice companies, told the newspaper.
Justice lost another case last month in Kentucky when a judge ordered him and his son, Jay Justice, to pay $2.9 million in fines for cleanup violations in eastern Kentucky.
