Federal judge rules that Army Corps of Engineers can ignore mountaintop removal studies

The U.S. Army Corps of Engineers does not have to consider scientific studies linking mountaintop removal to public health problems when the agency approves new Clean Water Act permits for mining operations, a federal judge ruled this week in Charleston, W.Va., Ken Ward reports for the Charleston Gazette.

In a 57-page ruling, U.S. District Judge John T. Copenhaver Jr. "concluded that the corps was 'not unreasonable' in excluding the studies from its permit review because the articles 'do not contemplate that the health effects were caused by the type' of water discharges authorized by the corps’ permit," Ward writes. The case concerned a permit application on a proposed 725-acre surface mine in Boone County, West Virginia. (Read more)