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This news article originally provided by
The
Charleston Gazette
Citizen groups started two major legal actions Wednesday to force
the Manchin administration to properly fund the cleanup of abandoned
coal mines that are polluting streams with acid drainage.
In one action, the West Virginia Highlands Conservancy sought to
reopen a seven-year-old federal court lawsuit over the state’s
cleanup program.
In the other, the Conservancy and the West Virginia Rivers
Coalition threatened to sue the state Department of Environmental
Protection for illegal water pollution from mine sites the DEP is
cleaning up.
Both actions are aimed at fixing a major environmental problem
that dates back more than 25 years.
Late last year, a DEP advisory panel urged Gov. Joe Manchin and
lawmakers to increase coal taxes to create a nearly $300 million
trust fund for the cleanups. Neither Manchin nor lawmakers took up
the recommendation.
In its annual report, the Special Reclamation Fund Advisory
Council said the state cleanup fund could run out of money between
2012 and 2018.
“The longer we wait, the harder it will be to fund the trust,”
said Cindy Rank, chairwoman of the Conservancy’s mining committee.
“Coal mining will decline as resources are depleted, but the
money needed to treat polluted water will remain constant or even
increase,” Rank said. “Acid mine drainage will likely continue for
hundreds of years. Unless we act now to build an adequate fund, the
last mining company and ultimately the public will be left holding
the tab for an enormous bill.”
DEP officials had no immediate reaction Wednesday afternoon to
the environmental groups’ actions.
The special reclamation fund cleans up coal mines that were
abandoned after passage of the 1977 federal strip mine law. A
separate program handles sites abandoned before that.
In West Virginia, the fund has never had enough money. Over the
years, thousands of acres of abandoned mines sat unreclaimed.
Hundreds of polluted streams went untreated.
The fund was historically short on money because coal operators
had not posted reclamation bonds sufficient to pay for mine cleanups
at sites that went belly-up. The state’s special reclamation tax and
civil penalties paid by coal operators were never enough to make up
the difference.
As early as 1981, when the federal Office of Surface Mining
Reclamation and Enforcement first approved West Virginia’s strip
mine regulatory plan, OSMRE was asking for a better cleanup fund.
Reports in 1986 by the General Accounting Office and 1991 by the
Interior Department Inspector General blasted the state’s cleanup
fund.
In one study, OSMRE estimated West Virginia needs more than $2.6
billion over the next 50 years to clean up polluted water at
abandoned mine sites.
OSMRE has consistently refused to launch a federal takeover of
the reclamation fund, however, saying the state is taking steps to
improve the situation.
Starting in 2000, Conservancy lawyers sought to have then-U.S.
District Judge Charles H. Haden II force that takeover. Haden, who
is now deceased, cited a “climate of lawlessness” created by
repeated inaction on the issue, but still declined to force a
federal takeover.
Now, with the DEP advisory group’s reports as their evidence,
Conservancy lawyers are back in federal court, trying to reopen that
case. A new judge would have to be assigned to hear the case.
“Once the case is reopened, the Conservancy can renew its demand
that the federal Office of Surface Mining Reclamation and
Enforcement declare the state in default on its federal
responsibilities under its state mining program, and consider
revoking the state’s authority over its bonding program,” said
Conservancy lawyer Jim Hecker of the group Trial Lawyers for Public
Justice.
In the other action Wednesday, the Conservancy and the Rivers
Coalition cited at least 40 discharges of polluted water at DEP
cleanup sites that do not have Clean Water Act permits.
At each site, discharges have frequently violated legal pollution
limits for acidity, iron, manganese and aluminum, according to a
formal notice of intent to sue sent to DEP Secretary Stephanie
Timmermeyer.
“The state is running these sites ‘off the books’ to try to
escape accountability for necessary water treatment,” said Liz
Garland, executive director of the Rivers Coalition. “Acid mine
drainage from these sites is not being treated adequately, and the
streams are being polluted illegally.”
Joe Lovett, another lawyer for the citizen groups, said, “By not
obtaining permits or complying with required standards, DEP has
significantly underestimated the costs of treating acid mine
drainage at these sites. The bond fund for water treatment must be
increased to account for the full cost of meeting treatment
requirements at all sites.”
To contact staff writer Ken Ward Jr., use e-mail or call
348-1702.
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