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Archived Coal Issues:
August 2005
April 2004
Nov 2003
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| Large valley fills like the one
pictured are created when mining companies dump waste
rock and dirt from mountaintop removal mining operations
in headwater streams. Over 1200 miles of streams have
been buried in central Appalachia. Nearly all of these
fills have been illegally authorized by the Army Corps
of Engineers using a lenient nationwide general permit.
The Center is currently challenging the Army Corps over
this practice in federal court. |
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Valley Fill Permits
Litigation filed on behalf of the Natural Resources Defense Council,
Coal River Mountain Watch and the Ohio Valley Environmental
Coalition in October 2003 is well underway to stop the U.S. Army
Corps of Engineers from rubber-stamping massive coal mining
operations using lenient nationwide general permits to approve
massive valley fills. Hundreds of pages of briefing have been filed
in the case and the federal District Court for the Southern District
of West Virginia issued a Preliminary Injunction Order to stop Green
Valley Coal Company (a Massey subsidiary) from proceeding to fill a
critical tributary to one of the State's best trout streams with
mining waste. Motions for Summary Judgment, which will determine
whether the Corps must completely revamp its permitting process, are
pending before the Court. The outcome of this case will impact
significantly nearly every strip mine permitted in the region.
NEWS FLASH THE
CENTER WINS VALLEY FILL LAWSUIT
Buffer Zone Rule
The Center has filed an important permit appeal of Coal Mac's
Phoenix 4 Mine on behalf of the West Virginia Highlands Conservancy
challenging the WV Department of Environmental Protection (WVDEP)'s
failure to enforce the Surface Mining Act's stream buffer zone law,
selenium water quality standards and the Surface Mining Act's
reforestation requirements. Perhaps most critical is the attempt to
enforce the stream buffer zone rule. In reaction, the Bush
administration, recognizing that a victory for us in this action
would significantly reduce the size of mountaintop removal mines,
has proposed to change the federal buffer zone regulation. This is
at least the third regulatory change that the Bush administration
has proposed in response to the Center's work. Additionally, as a
result of this case, West Virginia has already conceded that it must
change its permitting practices by requiring more stringent
safeguards to eliminate selenium pollution in the State's streams
and rivers. Selenium is extremely toxic at high levels.
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| The stream buffer zone rule
prohibiting mining within 100 feet of
streams has not been enforced in West
Virginia or other Appalachian states. This
has allowed hundreds of miles of streams to
be buried by millions of tons of coal waste.
The wedge shaped structure in the center of
the picture is a valley fill, a headwater
stream now being filled with mining waste. |
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Proposed
Federal Changes to the Buffer Zone Rule
In reaction to our challenge of the State's failure to enforce the
steam buffer zone rule, the Bush administration is attempting to
eviscerate one of the most important regulations in the Surface
Mining Act. Despite a federal court ruling to the contrary, ignoring
documentation of damage to natural systems caused by valley fills
and mountaintop removal mining, and in the face of growing outcry by
communities in the region and across the country, the Bush
Administration and the Federal Office of Surface Mining are
attempting to change the Surface Mining Act's stream buffer zone
rule. The plain language of this crucial rule prohibits mining
within 100 feet of intermittent and perennial stream segments if the
mining will lead to violations of State water quality standards. The
Bush administration wants to "clarify" that the rule was never meant
to impede mining permits, or to protect headwater streams from being
buried under waste rock from coal mining. Instead they propose that
streams could be buried as long as the coal company had promised to
do all that was practicable to avoid filling the stream. This is
nothing more than the dishonest rhetoric that we have come to expect
from an administration that is hell-bent on giving its friends in
the coal industry anything it asks for, even if it means destroying
the future of those who live in the communities near mountaintop
removal mines. Hearings on the proposed rule in Washington, DC as
well as West Virginia, Pennsylvania, Kentucky and Tennessee drew
large crowds of citizens upset by the proposal. Center staff
submitted extensive technical and legal comments opposing the
change, appeared at a news conference in front of the Interior
Department's office in DC and made a statement at the hearing inside
the building.
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| Coal mining has left a legacy
of pollution in central Appalachia. Acid
mine drainage destroys aquatic life and
makes water unfit for human consumption and
many industrial uses. For the first time,
counter to law and with support of the
Department of the Interior’s Office of
Surface Mining, West Virginia has issued a
permit that it knows will create perpetual
acid mine drainage. The Center is currently
appealing this permit before the West
Virginia State Surface Mining Board. Photo
is of acid mine drainage in Preston County. |
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Acid Mine
Drainage
In June 2004 the Center filed a challenge to the Mettiki "E" Mine
permit on behalf of the West Virginia Rivers Coalition, Trout
Unlimited and the West Virginia Highlands Conservancy that has very
broad implications for the creation of acid mine drainage (AMD)
throughout the region. For the first time, and with support of the
Department of the Interior's Office of Surface Mining, the WVDEP
issued a permit that it knows will create perpetual acid mine
drainage. If this permit is not overturned, it will likely mean that
the coal currently unmineable in the region will be mined. In
WVDEP's approval of this new permit it has upended both state and
federal policy to deny permits where the production of AMD is
expected. Furthermore, this action has negated decades of citizen
concern, comment, litigation and negotiation to prevent any further
AMD destruction of our region's waters. Working with citizen groups
concerned about this permit, the Center will continue to monitor
other WVDEP permitting actions that will create AMD and will file
appeals of permits when appropriate.
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