Slurry spill shuts Massey's Bandmill preparation plant in W.Va.

Washington (Platts)--21Sep2005

Massey Energy's 1,600-ton/hour Bandmill preparation plant was closed by the
West Virginia Dept. of Environmental Protection until the coal company cleans
up a stream polluted by black water from a slurry line that broke late Monday.

The accident occurred the same day Massey's Martin County Coal subsidiary
reached an out-of-court settlement involving a 250-mil-gallon slurry spill in
Kentucky in October 2000.

"We're letting them load what they've already cleaned," WVDEP spokeswoman
Lalena Price told Platts Coal Trader Tuesday. "They can still run their mining
facilities and stockpile that coal, but they can't use that prep plant until
the creek is cleaned. The company is estimating they'll have that done
sometime [today]."

Massey officials were not available for comment Tuesday.

The Logan County complex includes Bandmill, five surface mines, three highwall
miners, one underground room-and-pillar mine and the Aracoma longwall mine,
plus the Feats loadout. The surface mines and highwall miners deliver coal to
Bandmill by truck, while both underground mines belt coal directly to the
plant. Two surface mines also deliver direct-ship coal to the Feats loadout by
truck. A portion of the coal from two of the surface mines and the highwall
miners is also delivered to the Delbarton prep plant by truck. Another surface
mine transports its coal by truck to the Rawl plant for processing and
shipment. CSX Railroad serves the rail-loading facility.

DEP was still assessing the situation for possible fines, Price said. About
one mile of the Right Fork of Rum Creek was affected by the spill, DEP said.

Bandmill workers currently are pumping the black water into a containment
pond, the agency said.

A broken slurry line at Bandmill in August also caused a black water spill
into the same stream, but production wasn't affected at that time, according
to Massey.

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