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PA WEST VIRGINIA BUSINESSMAN INDICTED FOR CLEAN WATER ACT VIOLATIONS
Release Date: 10/20/97
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FOR RELEASE: MONDAY, OCTOBER 20, 1997
WEST VIRGINIA BUSINESSMAN INDICTED FOR CLEAN WATER ACT VIOLATIONS
On Oct. 8, Wayne Fortney, Jr., of Morgantown, W.Va., was indicted in U.S. District Court for the Northern District of West Virginia in Clarksburg on five counts of violating the Clean Water Act (CWA). Fortney, former principal owner and president of Valley Mining Co. Inc. of Morgantown, operated a surface coal mine overlooking Cheat Lake near Morgantown. The indictment alleges that he failed to collect acid mine drainage from the mine as required by his CWA discharge permit, allowing it to be released into a waterway through an old underground “punch line.” The indictment also alleges that in March 1992 and September 1992, Fortney knowingly allowed acid mine drainage to be released from treatment ponds at the mine in violation of a CWA discharge permit. The case was investigated by EPA’s Criminal Investigation Division and the FBI.
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