CHARLESTON, W.Va. -- The Obama administration is not out to halt all coal mining, but will continue to push operators to reduce the number and size of valley fills that bury streams, the head of the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency said Thursday.

In an appearance before Congress, Lisa Jackson defended her agency's scrutiny of mountaintop removal, amid growing pressure from coalfield political leaders and the mining industry.

"Neither EPA nor I personally have any desire to end coal mining, have any hidden agenda, any agenda whatsoever that has to do with coal mining as an industry," Jackson told a House committee. "I believe coal can be mined safely and cleanly. I believe it can be done in a way that minimizes impacts to water quality."

As if to emphasize Jackson's point, EPA officials revealed during a Thursday meeting in Charleston with the state Department of Environmental Protection that they had reached agreement in principle with Patriot Coal's Hobet Mining subsidiary on a permit for its sprawling Hobet 21 operation along the Boone-Lincoln county line.

The Hobet permit -- dubbed Hobet 45 -- has been a major concern for the United Mine Workers union, which represents miners at the site, and was one of 23 West Virginia permit applications on a list of 79 receiving closer scrutiny from EPA.

Details were sketchy, but DEP Secretary Randy Huffman said the Hobet 45 deal, though not finalized, appears to cut the amount of stream being impacted by mining in half.

The Obama administration has promised "unprecedented steps" to reduce the environmental impacts of mountaintop removal. And while EPA has resumed some role in reviewing Clean Water Act permits issued by the corps, something that was all but abandoned during the Bush years, EPA has not yet made public clear standards for what level of impacts it will allow or prohibit.

The National Mining Association has repeatedly complained that EPA's permit reviews amount to putting new mining proposals into a "regulatory black hole," and Gov. Joe Manchin has said he believes EPA is out to end all surface coal mining in the region.

But Huffman said his staff made some progress in Thursday's meeting with EPA toward developing what Huffman hopes will be a long-term strategy for dealing with federal agency concerns about mining damage through state-issued water pollution discharge permits, rather than EPA reviews of federal Corps of Engineers Clean Water Act authorizations.

"It was good and informative," Huffman said of the meeting. "I think EPA is starting to get a better handle on what they want. It's not a wholesale attempt to shut down coal mining."

CHARLESTON, W.Va. -- The Obama administration is not out to halt all coal mining, but will continue to push operators to reduce the number and size of valley fills that bury streams, the head of the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency said Thursday.

In an appearance before Congress, Lisa Jackson defended her agency's scrutiny of mountaintop removal, amid growing pressure from coalfield political leaders and the mining industry.

"Neither EPA nor I personally have any desire to end coal mining, have any hidden agenda, any agenda whatsoever that has to do with coal mining as an industry," Jackson told a House committee. "I believe coal can be mined safely and cleanly. I believe it can be done in a way that minimizes impacts to water quality."

As if to emphasize Jackson's point, EPA officials revealed during a Thursday meeting in Charleston with the state Department of Environmental Protection that they had reached agreement in principle with Patriot Coal's Hobet Mining subsidiary on a permit for its sprawling Hobet 21 operation along the Boone-Lincoln county line.

The Hobet permit -- dubbed Hobet 45 -- has been a major concern for the United Mine Workers union, which represents miners at the site, and was one of 23 West Virginia permit applications on a list of 79 receiving closer scrutiny from EPA.

Details were sketchy, but DEP Secretary Randy Huffman said the Hobet 45 deal, though not finalized, appears to cut the amount of stream being impacted by mining in half.

The Obama administration has promised "unprecedented steps" to reduce the environmental impacts of mountaintop removal. And while EPA has resumed some role in reviewing Clean Water Act permits issued by the corps, something that was all but abandoned during the Bush years, EPA has not yet made public clear standards for what level of impacts it will allow or prohibit.

The National Mining Association has repeatedly complained that EPA's permit reviews amount to putting new mining proposals into a "regulatory black hole," and Gov. Joe Manchin has said he believes EPA is out to end all surface coal mining in the region.

But Huffman said his staff made some progress in Thursday's meeting with EPA toward developing what Huffman hopes will be a long-term strategy for dealing with federal agency concerns about mining damage through state-issued water pollution discharge permits, rather than EPA reviews of federal Corps of Engineers Clean Water Act authorizations.

"It was good and informative," Huffman said of the meeting. "I think EPA is starting to get a better handle on what they want. It's not a wholesale attempt to shut down coal mining."

While Huffman and DEP staffers met in Charleston Thursday with EPA regional officials from Philadelphia, Jackson was being pressed on the mountaintop-removal issue by West Virginia's elected officials in Washington. Jackson's testimony also followed a week that saw huge crowds of miners and coal supporters turn out at public hearings across Appalachia to oppose Obama's crackdown on mountaintop removal.

During a House hearing meant to focus on Clean Water Act enforcement problems, Jackson was questioned by both Rep. Nick J. Rahall, D-W.Va., and Rep. Shelley Moore Capito, R-W.Va., about her agency's stepped up review of mountaintop-removal permits normally handled by the Army Corps of Engineers.

Under the law, the Corps of Engineers generally reviews and decides on "dredge-and-fill" permits that allow mine operators to bury streams beneath millions of tons of waste rock and dirt. But Congress long ago gave EPA broad authority to overrule the corps if it believes serious water quality damage could occur.

In response to Rahall, Jackson agreed that EPA needs to do more to clarify exactly what the permit requirements are for mountaintop removal and work with operators to resolve permit questions.

"I absolutely believe that the end of the road should be clarity and certainty in the regulations that EPA is imposing through the Clean Water Act," Jackson said.

Under questioning from Capito, Jackson disputed coal industry claims that EPA's more thorough examination of 79 pending mountaintop-removal permits in four Appalachian states amounts to the agency's taking a second crack at mine proposals it had already approved under a prior White House administration.

Jackson noted that those 79 permits had been bogged down at the corps while officials waited for an appeal of a March 2007 ruling by U.S. District Judge Robert C. Chambers that required more detailed permit reviews. While the 79 permits were not specifically blocked by Chambers, strip-mine permitting at the corps slowed to a near halt while the appeal was considered. Jackson said that meant EPA officials never had a chance to examine the 79 pending permits before.

"We had 79 permits that had been held up by litigation that EPA had never reviewed," Jackson said. "These are not re-reviewed permits."

Jackson said EPA is determined to ensure that mine operators do everything possible to minimize the impacts of large-scale surface coal mining in Appalachia.

"What we're seeing with the science here is that as these watersheds have more and more valley fills in them, frankly, we see water quality impacts," Jackson said. "We believe that over time that is going to be a larger problem, not a smaller problem. What really has to happen is rolling up the sleeves to minimize in these instances."

Reach Ken Ward Jr. at kw...@wvgazette.com or 304-348-1702.