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Martin County Paying $3.25M For Damages in October 2000 Coal Spill
Class Action Reports
August 2, 2002
Martin County Coal agreed to pay $3.25 million in compensation for starting one of the nation's worst coal sludge spills in Kentucky, state officials said. The Company will pay $1.75 million in penalties, $1 million for damage to the environment and $500,000 to pay back the state for the cleanup.
The spill occurred in October 11, 2000, when more than 300 million gallons of water and sludge broke through the bottom of the impoundment pond on a mountaintop outside Inez, Kentucky and poured into the underground coal mine portals, out into the two creeks and into the Big Sandy River.
As a result, lawns were buried up to 7 feet deep in the molasses-like mixture, all fish were killed in two streams, and drinking water supplies were fouled along 60 miles of the Big Sandy River, AP reports. The Environmental Protection Agency called the spill one of the worst environmental disasters ever in the Southeast. For more information on this case, click here.