EPA overstepped boundaries with guidelines, judge says
By Associated Press and Cecelia Mason
July 31, 2012 ·
A federal judge says the Environmental Protection Agency overstepped its powers by setting up water quality criteria for coal mining operations in Appalachia. While WV board denies a mountain top removal permit.
U.S. District Judge Reggie Walton in Washington D.C. ruled in a lawsuit filed by a coal mining industry coalition against the EPA and Administrator Lisa Jackson.
Walton said the EPA infringed on the authority given to state regulators by federal clean water and surface mining acts.
Last year, the EPA tightened guidelines on the practice of dumping waste into Appalachian valley waterways from surface mine blasting.
The National Mining Association, which had denounced the guidelines as a "jobs destroyer," says it's now time to get miners back to work by allowing state permitting agencies to do their jobs.
A message left with the EPA wasn't immediately returned to the Associated Press.
While the federal EPA ruled against guidelines, a West Virginia board denied a mountaintop removal permit. According to a release from environmental groups, the West Virginia Environmental Quality Board ruled that the state’s Clean Water Act permit for a mountaintop removal mine is unlawful.
The board said that Patriot Mining Company’s New Hill West mine does not limit harmful pollution that degrades water quality.