MORGANTOWN, W.Va. (AP) -- FirstEnergy says it will pay $50,000 to settle a federal lawsuit with environmentalists who accused the utility of arsenic pollution from a coal-ash dump at the Albright power plant.

Spokesman Mark Durbin said Tuesday that Ohio-based FirstEnergy doesn't admit to any wrongdoing under the proposed agreement.

Durbin says FirstEnergy will pay $45,000 to The Mountain Institute and $5,000 to the U.S. Department of Justice. It will also cover the plaintiffs' legal fees.

The Sierra Club, the West Virginia Highlands Conservancy and the West Virginia Rivers Coalition sued FirstEnergy and its Mon Power subsidiary last May.

They argued the utilities should be fined nearly $9.4 million for federal Clean Water Act violations that had allegedly harmed trout and recreational streams feeding the Cheat River.

Mon Power denied being out of compliance.