Bluestone Coke, an Alabama coking plant owned by the family of West Virginia Gov. Jim Justice, will pay nearly $1 million in civil penalties after a consent decree was entered and approved by a circuit court judge in Birmingham last week.
The settlement agreement was entered between Bluestone Coke, the Jefferson County Department of Health (JCDH), and a Birmingham environmental group known as GASP.
A coking plant heats coal at high temperatures in closed, oxygen-free ovens, which cooks off impurities while not destroying the coal, according to a lawsuit (pdf) filed in 2021 by the board that oversees the JCDH. The byproduct is coke, which is used as fuel for fire blast furnaces to make metal and cement….