Coal miner Alpha Natural Resources Inc. (NYSE: ANR) has reached an consent decree with the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency under which the company will spend approximately $200 million to install and operate wastewater treatment systems to reduce the discharge of pollution from coal mines in Kentucky, Pennsylvania, Tennessee, Virginia, and West Virginia. The EPA also levied a $27.5 million fine against the company “for thousands of permit violations” and said that this was the largest penalty in history under Section 402 of the Clean Water Act.

A Justice Department official said:

The unprecedented size of the civil penalty in this settlement sends a strong deterrent message to others in this industry that such egregious violations of the nation’s Clean Water Act will not be tolerated. Today’s agreement is good news for communities across Appalachia, who have too often been vulnerable to polluters who disregard the law. It holds Alpha accountable and will bring increased compliance and transparency among Alpha and its many subsidiaries.

On its own behalf an Alpha executive said:

Our combined total water quality compliance rate for 2013 was 99.8 percent. That’s a strong record of compliance, particularly considering it’s based on more than 665,000 chances to miss a daily or monthly average limit. But our goal is to do even better, and the consent decree provides an opportunity to proactively focus on improving on the less than 1 percent of the time that permit limits were exceeded.

The company also said that the complaints against the company “did not allege that the exceedances posed a risk to human health.”

Alpha’s stock was down about 1.5%, at $5.23 in a 52-week range of $4.78 to $9.05.

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