Coal company left with DEQ fine after vandals spill thousands of gallons of oil

A local coal group is having to pay fines and clean up property after vandals spilled an estimated 5,000 gallons of oil on their sites in Lee and Wise counties.

Documentation from the Virginia Department of Environmental Quality says Blackstone Energy was fined more than $20,000 and agreed to excavate soil on company grounds where the suspects turned over transformers causing oil to spill out on the surface.

The consent order said the vandals caused the damage at the company’s A&G and Sigmon mine operations in early 2019.

BlackstoneEnergy-CSO-PublicNotice by SUPERTALK DIGITAL on Scribd

(GRAPHIC: VDEQ)