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This news article originally provided by The Charleston Gazette

Massey seeks stay of ruling

By Ken Ward Jr.
Staff writer

Massey Energy asked a federal judge on Tuesday to suspend a ruling that blocked four of its mountaintop removal mining permits.

Lawyers for Massey also notified U.S. District Judge Robert C. Chambers that they would appeal his decision to the 4th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals in Richmond, Va.

In court papers, Massey said it has already laid off 66 workers from one of its mines, and anticipates more layoffs if Chambers’ ruling is not suspended pending the appeal.

“If a stay is not granted, mining at the operations will at some point in the near future cease, and these jobs and tax dollars will be lost,” Massey lawyer James Snyder wrote.

“Perhaps even more significant, an adverse perception will be created in the marketplace that West Virginia coal companies cannot reliably produce and deliver the coal that they have contracted to sell,” he wrote.

“The customers who purchase West Virginia coal may elect to secure their fuel needs from other regions or countries if they perceive that permitting in West Virginia is either lengthy or unpredictable. If sales and market share for West Virginia coal are lost, it cannot necessarily be regained.”

In a March 23 opinion, Chambers blocked four U.S. Army Corps of Engineers permits for Massey operations, ruling that agency officials had not fully evaluated the potential environmental damage before approving the operations.

In an 89-page opinion, the judge said without a complete evaluation, the corps could not rightly conclude that none of the permits would cause significant damage to streams and forests.

Chambers cited an “alarming cumulative stream loss” to mining valley fills, and said that the corps “does not explain how the cumulative destruction of headwater streams already affected by mining in these watersheds will not contribute to an adverse impact on aquatic resources.”

The judge declined to order the corps to perform a more detailed study, called an Environmental Impact Statement, on each and every mining permit. But, he sent the four Massey permits back to the corps. The agency was ordered to conduct a more thorough analysis to determine if the impacts are more than minimal, the trigger for requiring an EIS.

In Tuesday’s filing, Massey asked Chambers to either suspend his entire ruling, or at least a follow-up order on April 6 that blocked continued mining at subsidiary Aracoma Coal Co.’s Camp Branch Mine in Logan County.

Massey had hoped that, despite Chambers’ original ruling, it could continue work at Camp Branch by dumping waste rock and dirt into two valley fills that had already been started. Chambers blocked that plan, saying his ruling applied to the entire project, not just a specific valley fill.

Massey lawyers said that the ruling would force it to close Camp Branch. Already, 66 miners were sent home on Monday, and 55 more will lose their jobs in a month, according to a sworn statement from Massey environmental affairs director Thomas Cook.

Two other Massey mines — subsidiary Elk Run Coal’s Black Castle Mine and Alex Energy’s Republic No. 2 Mine, will also “close shortly” without alternative waste disposal sites, Cook said in his statement.

Massey lawyers also submitted sworn statements from four Camp Branch workers who lost their jobs on Monday.

On of the miners, Otis Linville of Steptown, said that he would be unable to make mortgage and vehicle payments because of the mine closure.

“I am married and have three children, ages 2, 11 and 15,” he said. “I am my family’s sole source of support.”

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