Alcoa has put its shuttered Sandow Mine site on the market for $250 million, advertising it as a country paradise. Testing has found that groundwater under a landfill in the middle of the property is contaminated with toxic heavy metals.
Captured by Coal
Texas regulators have helped struggling coal companies avoid expensive land restoration costs by allowing them to do the bare minimum. The result: potentially thousands of acres across Texas are contaminated with toxic chemicals.
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Captured by Coal
Big coal gave a tiny Texas town free land. There’s a major catch.
Sulphur Springs leaders say they want Luminant — Texas’ largest electricity generator — to leave in place a 120-foot-tall mound of excavated dirt at the site of a shuttered coal mine so they can build an amphitheater. But the soil contains potentially dangerous materials, according to state regulators.
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Captured by Coal
Texas coal companies are leaving behind contaminated land. The state is letting them.
An investigation by The Texas Tribune and Grist shows that regulators in the Lone Star State have given a hand up to struggling coal companies as they face millions of dollars in mandated land restoration costs.