Gov. Justice, family company agree to Monroe County stream restoration stipulations after feds say

Gov. Justice, family company agree to Monroe County stream restoration stipulations after feds say they violated cleanup agreement


West Virginia Gov. Jim Justice and a company controlled by his children have agreed to address environmental violations as urged by the feds after they went after him in federal court last month for again failing to comply with a consent order under which he pledged to address environmental violations.

The U.S. Department of Justice, Gov. Justice and James C. Justice Companies Inc. proposed a consent order in the U.S. District Court for the Southern District of West Virginia Wednesday by which the governor and his companies would agree to submit post-restoration reports to the federal Environmental Protection Agency and record deed restrictions to protect restored portions of property in Monroe County.

The Department of Justice had said that Gov. Justice and his companies failed to comply with stream restoration-related requirements of a February 2016 consent decree that ordered them to submit a detailed restoration plan after alleging they violated federal and state water pollution laws by discharging pollutants along Turkey Creek in Monroe County.

The feds, in conjunction with the state Department of Environmental Protection, asked U.S. District Judge David Faber in a filing last month to enforce the consent decree, saying that Justice and James C. Justice Companies Inc. had failed to submit post-restoration reports to the EPA and record deed restrictions to protect the property.

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