Cambrian Coal Lawsuit: Kentucky Mining Company Settles Over Deadly 2010 Flood

LOUISVILLE, Ky. (AP) — A Kentucky mining company settled a lawsuit Friday that blamed mountaintop mining for stoking a 2010 flood that ravaged a tiny Appalachian community.

The lawsuit filed in August 2010 in Pike County said rainwater runoff from Cambrian Coal Corp.'s surface mine during a July 17, 2010, storm turned nearby Harless Creek into a "raging river." The flooding engulfed homes and carried away cars and other property.

Ned Pillersdorf, a Prestonsburg attorney representing the plaintiffs, said the terms of the settlement reached Friday with Cambrian Coal are confidential. A trial had been scheduled for Monday.

No one answered the phone Friday at Cambrian's office in Belcher, Ky.

Residents argued that the surface mining activity on the mountaintop, which stripped away trees, topsoil and vegetation, caused "excessive water flow that resulted in damages upon all of the plaintiffs' property," the lawsuit said.

A hydrological analysis ...