Mountaintop Mining Settlements In Ky., Tenn.

DYLAN T. LOVAN

LOUISVILLE, Ky. (AP) — A coal company has agreed to pay $250,000 to restore an eastern Kentucky watershed altered by a controversial mining practice known as mountaintop removal.

The Sierra Club and the environmental group Kentuckians for the Commonwealth sued Clintwood Elkhorn Mining in federal court in September, alleging the company illegally dumped mining waste into a stream valley in Pike County. The company acknowledged dumping the fill material without a Clean Water Act permit.

Clintwood's parent company, TECO Energy Inc. of Tampa, Fla., said in a statement Wednesday that the matter was "amicably resolved."

The Sierra Club also announced an agreement Wednesday with Appolo Fuels Inc. over stream dumping at a mining site in northwest Tennessee. The Middlesboro, Ky.-based company has agreed to pay $120,000 for land protection in Claiborne County.

Appolo President Rick Asher did not return a call Wednesday seeking comment.

In both cases, the dumping came as a result of mountaintop removal, a practice fiercely opposed by environmentalists, who say it harms waterways and pollutes streams. The procedure involves blasting rock to access coal seams and dumping the excess material in valleys.