Washington, 5 June (Argus) — Several major US coal companies and the nation's largest railroad were sued today by environmental groups that claim dust emissions from coal trains were violating the federal Clean Water Act.
Peabody Energy, Cloud Peak Energy, BNSF Railway, Ambre Energy North America and the owners of the Signal Peak mine, including FirstEnergy, were sued for allegedly discharging coal dust and particles into the waterways of the state of Washington.
The Sierra Club, Puget Soundkeeper, Columbia Riverkeeper, RE Sources for Sustainable Communities, and Friends of the Columbia Gorge filed their joint lawsuit today in the US District Court for the Western District of Washington in Seattle.
The groups said trains shipping coal to utilities and to Canadian export terminals are shedding coal dust into local waters, and the problem is growing because of increased traffic.
Since the Sierra Club released its notice of intent to sue 60 days ago, these companies “have failed to solve the problem,” Cesia Kearns, representative of the Sierra Club's Beyond Coal Exports campaign, said today.
Cloud Peak said it was “concerned that these accusations are part of the ongoing, well-funded efforts by anti-fossil fuel groups to use litigation, media campaigns and other tactics to prevent development” of coal and slow or stop exports.
BNSF and Peabody were not immediately available for comment.
BNSF and the coal companies named in the lawsuit did not respond to the notice until shortly before the expiration of the filing window, said Charlie Tebbutt, the attorney handling the case for the plaintiffs. He said the delay was either some “type of tactic” or “just laziness” that does not afford an opportunity for useful dialog. There have been discussions about setting up talks about the situation.
There was not a specific level of discharge that triggered the suit, he said. Any pollutant released into US waters is a violation of the Clean Water Act.
The environmental groups point to what they said is BNSF testimony at hearings before the Surface Transportation Board that each railcar loses an average of 500-3,500lb of coal dust. But the document the group pointed to is from a brief comment at a September 2009 meeting of the Rail Energy Transportation Advisory Committee.
That meeting occurred before the rise in western coal exports, as well as before Powder River basin shippers began spraying coal with a dust suppressant.
Tebbutt said the surfactants used do not control all dust and that they themselves have come off trains into local waterways. The groups said they had been collecting samples from several locations in Washington.
Western carrier Union Pacific was not included in the suit because BNSF is the largest coal carrier in the state, Tebbutt said. And Arch Coal was dropped from the petition after it told the group it no longer shipped coal through Washington.
The environmental groups said they were not aware of a coal dust problem until opposition to proposed coal export terminals made the issue public.
Ambre is developing two export terminal facilities in the Pacific northwest, including the 44mn short ton/yr (40mn metric tonne/yr) Millennium Bulk Terminal project in Longview, Washington, in which Arch owns a stake. Peabody and Cloud Peak have throughput agreements with SSA Marine for capacity at its proposed 48mn st/yr Gateway Pacific Terminal project in Cherry Point, Washington.
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