WASHINGTON — The US Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) announced January 17 that the largest civil penalty in the agency’s history — $20 million — has been levied against Massey Energy Co., Inc., for Clean Water Act (CWA) permit violations.

Massey, the fourth-largest coal company in the United States, agreed to the $20 million civil penalty in a corporatewide settlement to resolve CWA violations at coal mines in West Virginia and Kentucky, the Justice Department and EPA announced.

“As part of the settlement, Massey has agreed to take measures at all of its facilities that will prevent an estimated 380 million pounds of sediment and other pollutants from entering the nation’s waters each year. These compliance measures are unprecedented in the coal mining industry,” the announcement said.

In a May 2007 complaint, the government alleged that Massey violated its CWA permits more than 4,500 times between January 2000 and December 2006, discharging excess amounts of metals, sediment and acid mine drainage into hundreds of rivers and streams in West Virginia and Kentucky.

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