US environmental agency revokes mine's permit for mountaintop removal

[EnglishLady]

Guardian
Suzanne Goldenberg, US environment correspondent guardian.co.uk, Thursday 13 January 2011 19.35 GMT



EPA vetoes Spruce Number One mine project in West Virginia because it would pose 'unacceptable' threat to surrounding area


The Obama administration has vetoed one of the biggest coal projects in the US in a historic decision against the destructive practice of mountaintop removal mining.

The Environmental Protection Agency said it was revoking the permit granted to the Spruce Number One mine in West Virginia, which would have involved blasting the tops off mountains over more than 2,200 acres, because it would inflict "unacceptable" damage to surrounding valleys and streams.

The agency said it was the first time it had revoked a previously issued permit in 40 years, but it said the action was warranted because the environmental damage was truly unacceptable.

The decision was immediately criticised by West Virginia leaders and mining lobby, and sets the stage for a broader confrontation between the EPA and the empowered Republicans in Congress over the limits of government regulation.

In its decision, the EPA said the project would have dumped millions of tons of mining waste into healthy waterways, burying 6.6 miles of streams and completely killing off fish, salamanders and other wildlife that live in them.

Mining waste dumped in the rivers would also compromise water quality for locals, the EPA said.

"The proposed Spruce Number One mine would use destructive and unsustainable mining practices that jeopardise the health of Appalachian communities and clean water on which they depend," the agency's assistant administrator for water Peter Silva said in a statement. "We have a responsibility under the law to protect water quality and safeguard the people who rely on clean water."

West Virginia's newly elected Democratic senator, Joe Manchin, who ran a campaign showing him using EPA regulations as target practice, said the decision would have a "chilling" effect on the economy.

"Today's EPA decision is not just fundamentally wrong, it is an unprecedented act by the federal government that will cost our state and our nation even more jobs during the worst recession in this country's history," Manchin said in a statement.

The much-anticipated decision brings to a close nearly 13 years of struggle over the Spruce Number One mine. The US Army Corps of Engineers initially approved Arch Coal's project in 2007, but the mine start date was held up by environmental lawsuits. The EPA, which was then led by a George Bush appointee, did not object.

But under Obama the agency has been much more willing to intervene on projects. The agency said it spent a year negotiating with Arch Coal, which owns the mine, to try to find a compromise that would be less damaging to the environment.

The EPA was careful to note that its decision protects two streams, Pigeonroost Branch and Oldhouse Branch. But coal mining underway in other areas of the Spruce site is continuing.

Environmental organisations, which have been fighting since the 1990s to block the project, said they were relieved.

"In the face of the political and industrial forces pressuring EPA to ignore the damage this mine would cause, it took guts for the agency to follow the science and the law," said Jon Devine of the Natural Resources Defence Council.

 

[greg334]

This is a very good illustration of the problem when the agencies gain the power to make decisions that the congress or the state/local authorities make.

One thing that comes to mind is do we really need the EPA anymore with the states actually setting environmental policies within their borders from gas formulations to air quality. I mean if the people of California (or LA for that matter) want to live under a totalitarian regime, then it is their right to do so, but if the people of Chicago wants to have a hazy sky, then it is their right to have it.

 

[chefdennis]

1st the president said when he was running for office that he would kill the electric production industry in our country with regulations and this is the start of that.

2nd, the EPA should be totally defunded and put out of business...

EPA Accused of ‘Assault on Mining Industry’ After Revoking Permit for Mountaintop Mine

Friday, January 14, 2011
By Vicki Smith, Associated Press
EPA Accused of

Morgantown, W. Va. (AP) - The Environmental Protection Agency said Thursday it's revoking a crucial water permit for West Virginia's largest mountaintop removal mine because it would irreparably damage the environment and threaten the health of nearby communities.

Assistant Administrator for Water Peter S. Silva said the agency was employing a rarely used veto power because Arch Coal's Spruce No. 1 mine in Logan County would use "destructive and unsustainable" mining practices.

The move formalizes an action the agency first threatened nine months ago.

Arch issued a statement saying it was "shocked and dismayed" by EPA's assault on a permit that was legitimately issued by the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers, and vowed to continue fighting for the mine.

"We believe this decision will have a chilling effect on future U.S. investment," said company spokeswoman Kim Link.

The nearly 2,300-acre Spruce mine would bury 7 miles of streams, and EPA has previously ruled it would likely harm downstream water quality. The St. Louis-based coal company has planned to invest $250 million in the project, creating 250 jobs, but the mine has been delayed by lawsuits since it was permitted in 2007.

Mining already under way in a small portion of the Spruce site won't be affected by the EPA ruling, but it prohibits new, large-scale operations in other areas.

The ruling brought predictable responses from observers -- praise from environmentalists and harsh words from the industry and its supporters, including many of the state's top elected officials.

"This news is devastating," said acting Gov. Earl Ray Tomblin, a Democrat. "The Spruce No. 1 permit was issued years ago and it's hard to understand how the EPA at this late stage could take such a drastic action."

Democratic U.S. Sen. Joe Manchin, a former governor whose administration sued EPA last year over its new scrutiny of mountaintop removal coal mining, called the ruling "fundamentally wrong" and "a shocking display of overreach" that will cost jobs.

But Michael Brune, executive director of the Sierra Club, called it "a strong commitment to the law, the science and the principles of environmental justice."

And Janet Keating, executive director of the Ohio Valley Environmental Coalition, said EPA is validating what her organization has long argued: "These types of mining operations are destroying our streams and forests, and nearby residents' health."

EPA said it was acting within its legal authority in revoking the permit and "using the best science" to protect water quality, wildlife and people.

"Coal and coal mining are part of our nation's energy future, and EPA has worked with companies to design mining operations that adequately protect our nation's waters," Silva said. "We have a responsibility under the law to protect water quality and safeguard the people who rely on clean water."

The EPA said this is only the 13th time since 1972 that it has used its Clean Water Act veto authority, and the first time it's acted on a previously permitted mine. EPA says it reserves that power "for only unacceptable cases" and used it in 1978 to veto a previously permitted landfill in Miami.

National Mining Association President Hal Quinn said EPA's action threatens the certainty of all similar permits that have been issued. Spruce No. 1 went through a "robust 10-year review" process, he said, and the project has complied with every permit requirement.

Mountaintop removal is a highly efficient but particularly destructive form of strip mining that blasts mountains apart at the top to expose multiple seams of coal. Excess rock and rubble are dumped into nearby valleys, often burying streams.

EPA said it had urged Arch for more than a year to come up with a plan to mitigate environmental harm from the Spruce mine, but the company proposed no new configurations. Thursday's ruling prohibits Arch from dumping waste into streams "unless the company identifies an alternative mining design."

Last year, EPA and another company collaborated on a plan to halve the impact on water resources while simultaneously increasing coal production, Silva said.

Environmentalists had challenged the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers' authority to issue Clean Water Act permits for large mountaintop removal mines, and last March, EPA announced it would veto one issued for Spruce.

Arch countered that the EPA has no authority to revoke such a permit once it's been issued.

Public hearings on the EPA's plan set off a fierce battle last year.

In October, months after the state Department of Environmental Protection warned that litigation was imminent, West Virginia sued the EPA over its mountaintop mining policies. Since President Barack Obama took office, the flow of water quality permits for Appalachian mines has slowed to a trickle.

Sen. Jay Rockefeller, another Democrat, fired off an angry letter to Obama on Thursday, declaring EPA's action wrong and unfair.

Manchin called EPA's retroactive action "an unprecedented power grab, period."

"This is not just an assault on the coal industry. It's an assault on every job market in the U.S. economy," Manchin said. "It might be West Virginia and the coal industry today. It will be your industry tomorrow."

 

[aristotle]

The Obama administration abhors the coal mining industry. What on Earth were the good folks of West Virginia thinking by electing another Democrat, Joe Manchin, to the US Senate? Obama pretty much said in the campaign of 2008, if elected, he intended to tax the coal industry out of existence. Given that West Virginia's economy depends on coal production for jobs, tens of thousands of West Virginians must have cast ill-informed votes.

 

[Turtle]

Small point of correction... Obama never said he would 'kill the electric production industry', (electricity can be produced by hydro, wind, solar, or nuclear) but he did say two things: One, that he wanted to spike electric prices to curb its use by the public, and that he wanted to "bankrupt" the coal industry using his carbon credits program.

“Under my plan of a cap and trade system electricity rates would necessarily skyrocket. Businesses would have to retrofit their operations. That will cost money. They will pass that cost onto consumers.”

"I think it is important for us to send some price signals to change behavior. You know, if electricity goes up, people start becoming more mindful of their electricity bill."

"If somebody wants to build a coal-powered plant, they can. It's just that it will bankrupt them because they're going to be charged a huge sum for all that greenhouse gas that's being emitted."


This was all from a 2008 Interview with the San Francisco Chronicle

 

[layoutshooter]

Total control of industry and the People. Obama and his ilk wants nothing less. Government out of control. It is our duty to stop them. We must restore our rightful control over them.

 

[chefdennis]

Yeap, Turtle you are right, I should have added the word "coal" to the opening sentence. But I did cover it when i said, "this is just the start of it"...I just wasn't clear on coal...

 

[aristotle]

As the coal mining industry became more and more mechanized, far fewer miners were needed to extract coal from the Earth. The total numbers of actively employed coal miners, in Appalachia, plummeted between 1960 and 2010. While coal production remains fairly strong in Eastern Kentucky and West Virginia, jobs aren't so plentiful as before.

Given the chronic poverty that plagues West Virginia, I suspect there are more WV voters dependent on government assistance than actively employed in coal-related industries. WV's population tends to be older, whiter, more poorly educated, and more unionized than the national norm. These factors might explain WV's election of Joe Manchin to the US Senate. Voting against coal is a vote against their own best interest, in my opinion. Obama has green dreams, but the national need for coal is reality.