Coal mining company Alpha Natural Resources has agreed to pay $7.5 million for land and water restoration work as part of its ongoing bankruptcy reorganization.
On July 8, 2016, the Sierra Club announced that—as part of a settlement with a trio of environmental groups that are working to do what the federal government should have done—Alpha will pay for mine site reclamation work in West Virginia above its previous reclamation commitments.
Under the settlement, the Bristol, Virginia-based company, which entered bankruptcy last year, will spend $1.3 million on restoration work once its bankruptcy plan is finalized.
It will pay the remaining $6.2 million over the following two years and will also provide more than $1 million in in-kind services through donated equipment and employee time for the restoration projects.
The agreement included a number of innovative elements, including the donation of 53 million tons of Pennsylvania coal to a local non-profit.