CHARLESTON, W.Va. -- The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency will more closely scrutinize mountaintop removal permits under a new initiative announced Tuesday by the Obama administration.
Read updates in Coal Tattoo.
CHARLESTON, W.Va. -- The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency will more closely scrutinize mountaintop removal permits under a new initiative announced Tuesday by the Obama administration.
EPA Administrator Lisa Jackson went public with her plans a day after agency officials sent letters that will delay -- and could ultimately block -- two mountaintop removal permits in West Virginia and Kentucky.
"The two letters reflect EPA's considerable concern regarding the environmental impact these projects would have on fragile habitats and streams," Jackson said in a prepared statement.
Jackson added that she had instructed EPA staff "to review other mining permit requests" and "follow the letter of the law in ensuring we are protecting our environment."
Adora Andy, Jackson's press secretary, said there is "no block, halt or hold" on new permits, but EPA has launched "a review of those pending applications."
"This is the Obama administration reversing the past eight years," said Joe Lovett, director of the Appalachian Center for the Economy and the Environment. "It is really a positive development."
But the EPA move caused widespread confusion in the Appalachian coal industry, and drew harsh criticism from mining lobbyists.
"I've heard everything from a moratorium on permits to the denial of a whole bunch of permits," said Bill Raney, president of the West Virginia Coal Association. "My concern about all of this is jobs. We're sitting here trying to put an economy back together, and it seems to me there's been plenty of time to look at these things."
Gov. Joe Manchin announced late Tuesday that he would meet today with Nancy Sutley, chairwoman of the White House Council on Environmental Quality.
On Monday, Obama administration lawyers at a federal court hearing in Huntington would say only that the government's position on mountaintop removal regulation was "in a state of transition." At the same time, EPA officials from two different regional offices were sending letters to the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers to object to the corps' plans to issue two mining permits in two different states.
Behind the scenes, EPA officials have been pushing to take action following a February federal appeals court decision overturning a ruling by U.S. District Judge Robert C. Chambers to require more detailed permit reviews. But corps officials opposed EPA, and the dispute is being mediated by the White Office Council on Environmental Quality.
Corps records, compiled by Lovett's organization, list a little more than 100 permits currently pending at the corps' office in Huntington. But EPA spokeswoman Enesta Jones said her agency is reviewing 150 to 200 mining permits.
Read updates in Coal Tattoo.
CHARLESTON, W.Va. -- The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency will more closely scrutinize mountaintop removal permits under a new initiative announced Tuesday by the Obama administration.
EPA Administrator Lisa Jackson went public with her plans a day after agency officials sent letters that will delay -- and could ultimately block -- two mountaintop removal permits in West Virginia and Kentucky.
"The two letters reflect EPA's considerable concern regarding the environmental impact these projects would have on fragile habitats and streams," Jackson said in a prepared statement.
Jackson added that she had instructed EPA staff "to review other mining permit requests" and "follow the letter of the law in ensuring we are protecting our environment."
Adora Andy, Jackson's press secretary, said there is "no block, halt or hold" on new permits, but EPA has launched "a review of those pending applications."
"This is the Obama administration reversing the past eight years," said Joe Lovett, director of the Appalachian Center for the Economy and the Environment. "It is really a positive development."
But the EPA move caused widespread confusion in the Appalachian coal industry, and drew harsh criticism from mining lobbyists.
"I've heard everything from a moratorium on permits to the denial of a whole bunch of permits," said Bill Raney, president of the West Virginia Coal Association. "My concern about all of this is jobs. We're sitting here trying to put an economy back together, and it seems to me there's been plenty of time to look at these things."
Gov. Joe Manchin announced late Tuesday that he would meet today with Nancy Sutley, chairwoman of the White House Council on Environmental Quality.
On Monday, Obama administration lawyers at a federal court hearing in Huntington would say only that the government's position on mountaintop removal regulation was "in a state of transition." At the same time, EPA officials from two different regional offices were sending letters to the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers to object to the corps' plans to issue two mining permits in two different states.
Behind the scenes, EPA officials have been pushing to take action following a February federal appeals court decision overturning a ruling by U.S. District Judge Robert C. Chambers to require more detailed permit reviews. But corps officials opposed EPA, and the dispute is being mediated by the White Office Council on Environmental Quality.
Corps records, compiled by Lovett's organization, list a little more than 100 permits currently pending at the corps' office in Huntington. But EPA spokeswoman Enesta Jones said her agency is reviewing 150 to 200 mining permits.
"There is a significant backlog of permits under review by the corps," EPA said. "EPA expects to be actively involved in the review of these permits following issuance of the 4th Circuit decision last month."
In mountaintop removal, coal operators use explosives to blast apart entire hilltops and uncover valuable low-sulfur coal reserves. Leftover rock and dirt -- the stuff that used to be the mountain -- is dumped into nearby valleys, burying streams.
Under the current regulatory system, the corps handles Clean Water Act permits for the actual waste-dumping involved in these "valley fills." But under the law, EPA has authority to veto corps' permit approvals that would have "unacceptable adverse effects" on the environment.
In one letter to the corps, EPA Region 3 officials in Philadelphia warned that Massey Energy subsidiary Highland Mining's proposed Reylas Surface Mine in Logan County would cause or contribute to water quality standards violations downstream "resulting in an impairment of the aquatic life use, and that the direct and cumulative impacts from this and future mines will be persistent and permanent and cannot be sufficiently compensated" through company-proposed mitigation plans.
Massey proposes to bury 2.5 miles of streams with one valley fill at the operation, which would be located near Ethel, along Reylas Fork in Bandmill Hollow, according to the EPA letter.
EPA told the corps that the project "will result in significant impacts to the human environment," and that the corps must perform a complete Environmental Impact Statement before approving the mining.
In the Kentucky letter, EPA targeted Central Appalachia Mining's proposal for the Big Branch Surface Mine in Pike County, which would involve permanent burial of 3.5 miles of streams. But EPA voiced somewhat lesser concerns about this mine, and suggested that the corps require the company to submit more information and a better mitigation plan.
EPA said in a news release that both mines "would likely cause water quality problems in streams below the mines, would cause significant degradation to streams buried by mining activities, and that proposed steps to offset these impacts are inadequate.
"EPA has recommended specific actions be taken to further avoid and reduce these harmful impacts and to improve mitigation," EPA said.
Reach Ken Ward Jr. at kw...@wvgazette.com or 304-348-1702.
In West Virginia, mining companies are literally moving mountains to uncover valuable, low sulfur coal reserves.
Mountaintop removal has become the dominant form of surface mining in the state. Coal operators are blasting off hilltops, and dumping leftover rock and dirt into nearby valleys.
An untold amount of the state has been flattened, and hundreds of miles of streams have been buried. Find out more in this Special Report.
Post a comment
The men and women who allow themselves to be employed as miners and loggers need to be pulled out of the gene pool permanently. Future generations will overwhelmingly approve.
Thanks for the comic relief, all the while as you spew your ignorance for the very thing you are opposed to coal provides the electricity to make such comments.
Another thing, sludge dams and the toxic lakes that they hold back are totally unnecessary. There is a different way of taking care of sludge. It is called the dry press method, but the coal industry doesn't want to do it because it will cost them a little more money, so they continue to endanger residents all over the coalfields with these monstrosities.