A federal judge in Birmingham is granting a request by Black Warrior Riverkeeper, a citizen-based nonprofit whose mission is to protect and restore the Black Warrior River and its tributaries, to approve a Consent Decree that orders an Alabama mining company to clean up unpermitted wastewater leakage from a dam into local waterways.
The move requires Warrior Met Coal (WMC) to fix its leaking coal slurry impoundment and stop discharging polluted wastewater without a permit at Mine No. 7 near Brookwood in Tuscaloosa County. The metallurgical coal mining company purchased several coal mines, including that underground mine, out of Walter Energy’s 2015 bankruptcy.
Black Warrior Riverkeeper filed a lawsuit in 2022 against WMC after Nelson Brooke, a Riverkeeper at Black Warrior Riverkeeper, received a call about a Tuscaloosa creek turning black. Brooke said he made the discovery about a leaky impoundment located near Mine No. 7 that ultimately flowed into the Black Warrior River through a series of different tributaries including Texas Creek, Davis Creek and Holt Lake.
“This is something that I discovered while I was on patrol several years ago, while I was actually investigating another incident at the mine that we received a complaint about," Brooke told APR in August. "They had discharged slurry from another area of the same slurry impoundment into a tributary of the river, and it was causing Davis Creek to turn black."
In the lawsuit, Black Warrior Riverkeeper claimed that WMC was violating the Clean Water Act of 1972 and the Surface Mining Control and Reclamation Act of 1977. The two parties later arranged a Consent Decree, which, now approved, requires WMC to fix its leaking coal slurry impoundment and stop discharging polluted wastewater without a permit at Mine No. 7.
“It's untreated wastewater going into a very small stream, and that is a serious threat to all aquatic life and anybody that comes into contact with it. We don't want to see pollutants cause an acute issue in the short term, and we also don't want to see it become a chronic issue over time, where pollutants, such as heavy metals, are coming out of the coal waste build up in the receiving stream and also in the in the life that lives in it depends on it,” Brooke explained to APR last month.
With the Consent Degree now approved, WMC will also be required to carry out an action plan that includes the installation of a linear to fix the leaky dam that is holding back millions of gallons of coal slurry at Impoundment No. 14.
WMC has also agreed to enroll in Alabama’s Dam Safety Program, which will add another layer of inspections and requirements for the maintenance and care of slurry impoundment No. 14.
Additionally, WMC will pay $250,000 to the Freshwater Land Trust for the establishment of a supplemental environmental project (SEP) in the Black Warrior’s Davis Creek sub watershed and reimburse Black Warrior Riverkeeper for the $28,000 in cost and attorney’s fees. By setting up the SEP, the money will go back into the local environment.
After discovering the wastewater leakage two years ago through a call from a citizen, workers with the Black Warrior Riverkeeper stress that the community plays an important role in helping local waterways.
"This case is a textbook example of why citizen suits are a critical enforcement mechanism when governments fail to enforce the law," said Black Warrior Riverkeeper’s Staff Attorney Eva Dillard in a press statement. "We are pleased that WMC was willing to take responsibility for the problems at Mine No. 7 and establish a SEP that will give back to Davis Creek.”
