WV surface mine clears new EPA criteria
July 28, 2010 ·
A Logan County mine has cleared the federal Environmental Protection Agency’s new criteria for mountaintop removal mining permits.
On Tuesday, the Army Corps of Engineers issued a final Clean Water Act
permit to Arch Coal subsidiary Coal-Mac for its Pine Creek Surface Mine in Logan County.
This is the first permit that’s been issued since the
Environmental Protection Agency announced new permit evaluation guidelines in
April.
In a news release, the agency said Pine Creek’s original
permit had been significantly changed, and its impact to water quality had been
reduced. One valley fill has been approved for the mine and any subsequent ones
will have to be evaluated individually.
The Pine Creek Mine was on the original list of 79 permits
in Appalachia that the EPA put on hold for further scrutiny. Another one of the 79—Hobet Mine in Lincoln County—was approved in January before
the new criteria were announced.
Many of the mines on the list
have since withdrawn their permits, but there are still 36 waiting for
approval. Fifteen of those are in West Virginia.