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This article originally provided by
The
Charleston Gazette
By Ken Ward Jr.
Staff writer
CHARLESTON, W.Va. -- Environmental groups said Thursday that they
were appealing the Manchin administration's approval of a key permit
change for a Massey Energy strip mine at a site where citizen groups
are promoting alternative plans for a wind-energy facility.
Lawyers for Coal River Mountain Watch and the Sierra Club were
finalizing their formal appeal papers late Thursday afternoon before
filing them with the state Surface Mine Board.
Both groups argue the state Department of Environmental Protection
wrongly approved permit revisions sought by Massey's Marfork Coal
subsidiary without ensuring the changes complied with the DEP's
appropriate original contour reclamation policy.
Citizen groups are opposing Massey's mining operation along Coal
River Mountain ridges because they argue a windmill project would
provide more long-term jobs without blasting apart the hilltops and
burying nearby streams.
"It is imperative that Coal River Mountain be preserved for the
future economic prosperity of this area," said Bill Price, the
Sierra Club's environmental justice coordinator in Charleston. "If
the mountain is preserved and the Coal River Mountain Wind project
is allowed to develop, then we are looking at good, union-organized
jobs in an area that sorely needs an economic future beyond coal."
Earlier this month, Coal River Mountain Watch issued a report by
consulting group Downstream Strategies that concluded a wind
operation in the area would provide more jobs and tax revenue than a
mountaintop removal mine.
Massey officials have said if environmental groups think wind
projects are such a good idea they should buy land, obtain permits
and build such projects themselves.
Gov. Joe Manchin has declined to intervene in the DEP permit reviews
for the Massey operation, or to voice any public support for putting
a wind project at the site instead. In September, Manchin aides said
the mining already had all of the required approvals, but it turned
out that DEP had not signed off on several permit changes and
authorizations.
On Nov. 20, DEP permit supervisor Charles R. Grafton signed off on
one of those changes, to allow Marfork to dispose of waste rock and
dirt from its Bee Tree Mine on a nearby permit area, to reclaim
highwalls near its existing Brushy Fork impoundment.
Joe Lovett, a lawyer for environmental groups, said the permit
change appeared aimed at allowing Marfork to begin mining the Bee
Tree site before it obtains a federal Clean Water Act permit needed
if it wanted to dump that waste in an on-site valley fill.
The Sierra Club and Coal River Mountain Watch plan to argue in their
appeal that Marfork did not properly revise its mining and
reclamation plan to meet the state's approximate original contour
formula and minimize environmental damage.
Reach Ken Ward Jr. at kw...@wvgazette.com or at 304-348-1702.
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