3 WV Groups Sue Alpha over Selenium Pollution - Beckley, Bluefield & Lewisburg News, Weather, Sports

3 WV Groups Sue Alpha over Selenium Pollution

HUNTINGTON (AP) -

Environmentalists are again suing Alpha Natural Resources over selenium pollution, this time from nine southern West Virginia operations.

The complaint filed Monday in U.S. District Court in Huntington targets mines in Logan, McDowell, Boone, and Kanawha counties.

The Ohio Valley Environmental Coalition, West Virginia Highlands Conservancy and Sierra Club say Virginia-based Alpha is violating the federal Clean Water Act and state-issued discharge permits.

They want a court order forcing the operations to comply and fining Alpha as much as $37,500 per day of violation, some of which date to 2007.

They also want monitoring and sampling to determine the extent of the damage, and a cleanup and restoration order.

In May, the same groups sued two Alpha subsidiaries over the same issues.

Alpha didn't immediately comment on the new case.

Copyright 2012 The Associated Press