|
This news story originally provided by
The Charleston Gazette
By Ken Ward Jr.
Staff writer
Massey Energy will appeal an order that blocked
construction of one of two coal storage silos near a Raleigh
County elementary school, company lawyers told state
regulators Thursday.
Massey lawyers also are expected to seek an emergency
ruling from the West Virginia Surface Mine Board, state
Department of Environmental Protection officials said.
A hearing could be held as early as Aug. 8, according to
board clerk Fran Ryan. Board members already have hearings
scheduled on Aug. 9, and could be in town the previous
afternoon to hear the silo case, Ryan said.
Earlier this week, DEP officials gave Massey’s Goals Coal
Co. until Aug. 8 to actually begin to rip up the silo
foundation and reclaim the area.
In a letter dated Wednesday and disclosed by the DEP on
Thursday, agency deputy mining chief Keith Porterfield
ordered Massey to submit a demolition and reclamation plan
by Aug. 5.
DEP spokeswoman Jessica Greathouse said agency lawyer
Perry McDaniel was told by Massey lawyer Shane Harvey that
the company will file and appeal.
Harvey did not return a phone call Thursday.
Greathouse said McDaniel turned down a request that the
DEP agree to suspend its silo order until the mine board
could hear a full appeal.
She said the DEP would respond in writing to any Massey
request that the board suspend the order. She also said the
DEP plans to vigorously defend its order.
On Tuesday, the DEP revoked its June 30 permit approval
for the second of two new silos Goals Coal planned for its
preparation and loadout facility near Sundial.
The DEP said an agency investigation had found that the
silo was “permitted based on inaccurate maps and may be
outside the legal permit boundary.”
The Goals Coal operation is adjacent to Raleigh County’s
Marsh Fork Elementary School, and the second silo is just
220 feet from the school property line.
Under state and federal law, no new mining operations are
allowed within 300 feet of a school.
After the first silo was built and when the second one
was proposed, coalfield residents and activists objected,
saying the facilities were too close to the school.
DEP officials dismissed those complaints, and said the
silos were exempt from the 300-foot limit because they were
within the permit boundary of an operation that existed
before passage of the federal Surface Mining Control and
Reclamation Act on Aug. 3, 1977. But before they approved
both silo permits, DEP officials did not go back and check
original permit maps to make sure that was correct.
This week, DEP officials learned from a survey that both
silos are located outside the permit boundary marked on
official coal company maps. The DEP has not taken any action
about the first silo, which was approved in 2003.
In a letter to the DEP on Monday, Massey argued that the
silos are within the permit boundary, based on a boundary
marker that agency inspectors found on the ground at the
site.
Massey says the marker, not its permit maps, is the
correct way to judge where the legal operation boundary is
located.
The environmental group Coal River Mountain Watch has
filed a formal notice of intent to sue the DEP to overturn
permit approvals for both of the Massey silos.
To contact staff writer Ken Ward Jr., use e-mail or call
348-1702.
|
