A recently elected U.S. senator has his family’s coal mining operations in Southwest Virginia caught up in more litigation with environmental advocacy groups after missing court-approved cleanup deadlines.
A&G Coal, owned by the family of West Virginia Republican Sen. Jim Justice, has three mining operations in Wise County that are subject to a federal consent decree requiring the reclamation, or clean up, of their sites.
But amid financial troubles, the company has asked the U.S. District Court for the Western District of Virginia to push back the deadlines. A&G also wants the court to lift a ban on mining at the sites so the company can generate revenue for the reclamation.
A coalition of environmental groups — Appalachian Voices, the Sierra Club and Southern Appalachian Mountain Stewards — argues in an Oct. 31 filing that the court should find the company in civil contempt. A&G’s request shouldn’t be granted since the company hasn’t held up its commitments under past agreements, and the financial hardship was expected, the groups claim.
“A&G’s persistent failure to meet reclamation deadlines at these sites and their continued pursuit of coal extraction despite court orders show a blatant disregard for both environmental obligations and legal commitments,” Matt Hepler, environmental scientist for Appalachian Voices, said in a statement.
Attorneys representing A&G Coal and a spokesperson for Justice did not respond to a request for comment.
The recent litigation comes as other Justice mines are being considered for contempt, and the West Virginia Department of Environmental Protection has suspended a mine operated by Justice.
The three mines in Virginia
The three mines in question — Looney Ridge Surface Mine #1, Canepatch Surface Mine and Sawmill Hollow #3 — were first permitted in 2004 and disturbed more than 3,300 acres in their mountaintop removal operations.
Amid less demand for coal, the sites went from producing about 1.5 million tons of coal in their first decade to none since 2017. Only one of the company’s nine mines in 2024 produced coal, in the amount of about 15,000 tons, according to Virginia Energy records.
Under federal mining regulations and state oversight, mining companies must restore land already dug up for coal while they’re still operating in order to prevent any further harm.
Reclamation consists of regrading, returning sites to the approximate original contour of the natural land and revegetating.
The consent decree
The company has received dozens of notices of violation from the Virginia Department of Energy across the multiple mine sites. Four of those violations at the Sawmill Hollow site, including failure to maintain ditches designed to control pollution from water runoff, led to a 2014 compliance agreement. But the agreement wasn’t being adhered to despite extensions, the environmental groups argued in a lawsuit they filed in 2023. The suit requested that the court order the company to complete the cleanup work and prohibit it from mining again until it did so.
According to the suit, data from Virginia Energy showed when the Looney Ridge site stopped producing coal in 2013, about half of the roughly 589 acres had been regraded and reclaimed/revegetated.
After the Sawmill Hollow mine stopped producing in 2013, about half of the 2,031 acres disturbed had been regraded, with 409 acres of that reclaimed/revegetated.
A couple of years prior to the Canepatch mine ending production in 2017, about half of the about 699 areas disturbed had been regraded and about 93 acres of that were reclaimed/revegetated.
The opposing sides settled on a consent decree with cleanup deadlines, which for Looney Ridge was Aug. 31, 2023. The deadline for the Canepatch site was set for Feb. 29, 2024, and the Sawmill Hollow site for Dec. 31, 2025. The company was also required to maintain cleanup funds in an escrow account, keep reclamation equipment like bulldozers, loaders and haulers at the sites, and provide reports to the environmental groups.
The decree increased the penalties for not maintaining equipment from $25,000 to $37,500. Missing the cleanup dates also increased the penalties to $75,000, and then an additional $37,500 for each month the dates are missed.
According to inspection reports from Virginia Energy, reclamation of the sites hasn’t been completed, and “intermittent coal removal and haulage” from the Looney Ridge site occurred, the Oct. 31 filing states.
Site visits by Hepler showed that equipment hadn’t been maintained at the sites. The company also had failed to submit status reports to the environmental groups every two months as required, the court filing also states.
“Because Plaintiffs, their members, and the environment are harmed by A&G’s ongoing failure to complete reclamation of the three sites, and because Plaintiffs are also harmed by the need to expend extra resources to monitor and document A&G’s lack of compliance with the Consent Decree, a finding of contempt is appropriate,” Appalachian Mountain Advocates attorney Claire Marie Horan wrote in the filing while expressing concerns over runoff and landslide potentials due to neglected cleanup.
The legal trouble
A&G says it is searching for money to complete the work.
On Halloween, the same day that the environmental groups asked for civil contempt, the company filed a request to modify the consent decree after it said it lost a deal to sell coal to Appalachian Power. A spokesperson for the utility declined to respond to a request for comments about A&G’s claim.
A&G also wants to mine 195,000 tons of coal on the Sawmill Hollow site and sell it.
The company stated in filings that the idea to generate revenue has support from Virginia Energy, which Deputy Director Julianne Szyper confirmed to Cardinal News.
“Plaintiffs have refused to agree to mining that is necessary for reclamation purposes, even though [Virginia Energy] agrees that the mining is in the public interest,” wrote Michael Carey, an attorney representing the company. “Their refusal frustrates both the public good and the purpose of the Consent Decree.”
But among the arguments against A&G’s request is a section of the consent decree that prevents an extension in the event of “a change in the price of coal” or a “financial inability to perform any obligation under this Consent Decree,” Horan argues.
With their request to find A&G in contempt, the environmental groups want an accounting of any mining activity and monthly compliance reports. The groups also ask that any revenue generated by A&G be given to the Upper Tennessee River Roundtable and $900,000 in penalties be levied on the company for failing to comply with the decree.
“Regulators have not been able to bring this company to heel for over a decade now,” said Taysha DeVaughan, executive committee member at Southern Appalachian Mountain Stewards. “So it’s essential that the court enforce the terms of the consent decree, and grant the relief requested in our motion.”
A hearing over the case had been scheduled for Jan. 22 but was rescheduled to 2:30 p.m. April 9 in Abingdon.