Developers of the Longview power plant have abandoned plans to use treated acid-mine water in the cooling tower.

General Manager Charles Huguenard says the water was dirtier than anticipated. Instead, the plant will pump water from the Monongahela River in Greene County, Pennsylvania, about six miles upriver.

Using mine water would have helped a Morgantown coal company by pumping out a flooded, abandoned mine. Removing the water would have made a nearby coal seam accessible again.

GenPower Holdings LP broke ground for the 695-megawatt plant last year in Fort Martin and expects to finish construction by March 2011.

It's the first new coal-fired plant in West Virginia since the Grant Town power plant went online in 1993.