EPA starts aggressive review of permit applications for mountaintop-removal strip mining of coal

As reported here the Obama Administration has promised to take a stance on the practice of mountaintop removal. Monday, the president told Jim Carroll of The Courier-Journal, "The environmental consequences of the runoff from some of these mountains can just be horrendous." Yesterday, the Environmental Protection Agency released letters it had sent Monday to the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers, voicing major concerns about permit applications for three mines, two in West Virginia, the other in Eastern Kentucky. EPA's actions were a clear indication of a policy change, Tom FitzGerald, executive director of the Kentucky Resources Council, told Andy Mead of the Lexington Herald-Leader.

Bill Caylor, president of the Kentucky Coal Association, told the paper that the new bar the EPA appears to be setting could affect all surface mining, not just mountaintop-removal operations. Adding, "If that happens, he said, it could put 6,000 Eastern Kentucky miners out of work, creating a ripple effect that could mean the loss of 23,000 more jobs in an economy that already is suffering." Mead says the announcement doesn't mean an end to mountaintop removal or other surface mining, but could mean that the practice will have to be conducted in the most environmentally sound manner possible: "What is needed now, FitzGerald added, is a new director of the federal Office of Surface Mining who "gets up every day and says 'How can we do what Congress intended to do? How can we fully protect the rights of people downstream and downhill?' " (Read more)

The move spurred West Virginia Gov. Joe Manchin to go to Washington to meet with EPA officials. As reported by Ken Ward Jr. of The Charleston Gazette, Manchin said he was expediting a meeting between the coal companies and EPA. Kentucky Gov. Steve Beshear said he is seeking clarification from EPA about the process. "Those permits should be reviewed in a timely manner, regardless of the outcome of any one application for mining," he said. "Our goal in Kentucky is to continue the responsible mining of coal in a way that protects safety and the environment, while also preserving and creating jobs in a region desperately in need of them." Both governors are Democrats. The United Mine Workers of America, which also supported Obama for president, said it was also seeking clarification from EPA Administrator Lisa Jackson.

EPA does not issue strip-mine or Clean Water Act permits, but is supposed to review applications for the latter to determine whether the act is being obeyed. In the West Virginia case, EPA recommends denial of the permit and calls for "A detailed Environmental Impact Statement — a position environmentalists have been advocating for years, but which U.S. District Judge Robert C. Chambers rejected," Ward notes. "But in the other case, EPA officials offer more watered-down criticism, and suggest much easier ways for mining to move forward." For EPA's letters on the West Virginia mines, in the Coal River and Guayndotte River watersheds, click here and here. For the letter on the Kentucky mine, which would extract 7.3 million tons of coal and permanently affect more than three and a half miles of streams in the Big Sandy River watershed in Pike County, click here. For background from EPA on mountaintop mining, click here.

UPDATE: EPA stopped the Corps from issuing the Kentucky permit April 28.