Protecting environmental integrity in the Allegheny-Blue Ridge region
Today, the Office of Surface Mining Reclamation and Enforcement determined that a bankrupt coal company with a long history of regulatory violations has the right to haul coal through the Monongahela National Forest in West Virginia. Richmond, Virginia-based South Fork
Dominion Energy wants to spend $4.5 billion on a massive gas-burning plant at its old Chesterfield coal station—right next to the Dutch Gap Conservation Area. Chesterfield neighbors have already lived with coal-ash pollution for decades. Now they’d get millions more
A federal judge in Delaware ruled Tuesday in favor of two motions filed by conservation groups, allowing key legal and administrative actions to move forward to protect portions of the Monongahela National Forest from mining activities by South Fork Coal Company, despite the company’s bankruptcy proceedings. South Fork Coal Co. filed for bankruptcy in February 2025.
The threat of toxic pollution from coal strip mining in the headwaters of one of the Gauley’s primary tributaries — the Cherry River — has made it one of America’s Most Endangered Rivers® of 2025. In Greenbrier and Pocahontas counties in West Virginia, South Fork Coal Company operates a network of strip mines, haul roads and a coal preparation plant spanning over 3,600 acres.