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This article originally provided by
The Charleston Gazette
CHARLESTON, W.Va. - Environmental groups are trying to stop
another new mountaintop removal permit, this one along the
Clay-Nicholas county line.
Lawyers for the Ohio Valley Environmental Coalition sought a
preliminary injunction late last week to block the permit for two
Fola Coal Co. mines.
Together, the mines would bury more than five miles of streams in
the Sycamore Run, Ike Fork and Lily fork watersheds, near Bickmore
and Gilboa.
U.S. District Judge Robert C. Chambers scheduled a hearing for
Sept. 30 in Huntington.
At the same time, lawyers for citizen groups, the Bush
administration and the coal industry prepared for today's showdown
at the 4th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals in Richmond, Va.
Coal operators and the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers are appealing
two 2007 rulings by Chambers to require more detailed scrutiny of
Clean Water Act permits that allow coal companies to bury streams.
A three-judge panel of the 4th Circuit will hear oral argument in
the case this morning. The 4th Circuit has overturned three other
mountaintop removal rulings by federal court rulings by West
Virginia judges.The new court action involving Fola is the second
time in a month that environmental groups have sought Chambers' help
in blocking a new corps approval for a mountaintop removal
operation.
Last month, environmentalists dropped their challenge of a new
permit for Hobet Mining's huge operation along the Lincoln-Boone
County line after they learned the company had already begun burying
the streams there.
Now, environmental group lawyers want Chambers to require the
corps to provide earlier public notice of permit proposals to give
citizens a chance to review those proposals - and perhaps go to
court to stop them - before the damage is done.
Also, they want Chambers to block the Fola permit for the
company's Ike Fork No. 1 and Ike Fork No. 2 surface mines.
Among other things, the groups allege that Fola built several
sediment ponds at the site without required corps approval. They say
that the corps is ignoring potential selenium runoff that would
pollute water downstream from the mining operations.
Neither the corps nor Fola Coal has responded to the court
filings yet. Fola is part of Pittsburgh-based CONSOL Energy Inc.
Reach Ken Ward Jr. at
kw...@wvgazette.com or 348-1702.
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