PITTSBURGH (May 17, 2011) - CONSOL Energy Inc. (NYSE: CNX) and Veolia Water Solutions & Technologies announce an agreement to design and build a state-of-the-art Zero Liquid Waste Discharge system to treat mine water. The parties are also completing an agreement for operation and maintenance of the facility. The system will be located near Mannington, W.Va., and will treat mine water from CONSOL's Blacksville #2, Loveridge, and Robinson Run mines.
Veolia Environnement, the leader in sustainable environmental services, has over 155 years of global water treatment experience and this expertise will be key to the design and operation of this system to treat high volume, complex mine water from CONSOL's mines.
Veolia's treatment experience combined with CONSOL's 150 years of operational expertise will prove to be a successful partnership ensuring the success of this facility. "Veolia is the perfect partner with which to collaborate." said Katharine Fredriksen, CONSOL senior vice president environmental strategy and regulatory affairs. "They bring design and operational experience with over 75 Zero Liquid Discharge plants around the world."
"Veolia's business philosophy of approaching environmental challenges with a sustainable life cycle approach makes Veolia uniquely qualified for this project," said Kirk Schwab, general manager of the Veolia Water Solutions & Technologies business unit in Pittsburgh. "We are excited about being selected to work with CONSOL."
Final design of the facility will be completed within the next few months, with construction to start in July and full operation to commence by May 2013. The Veolia team will be utilizing primarily local personnel through its office in Pittsburgh and local construction partners. The project is expected to create approximately 200 construction jobs over the next 2 ½ years and will require about 20 permanent employees to operate the facility.