EPA to delay 79 coal mining permits in 4 states

CHARLESTON, W.Va. — President Barack Obama’s administration put the brakes on 79 applications for surface coal mining permits in four states Wednesday, saying they would violate the Clean Water Act.

The action is the administration’s latest attempt to curb environmental damage from a highly efficient but damaging mining practice known as mountaintop removal. Each permit likely would cause significant damage to water quality and the environment, the Environmental Protection Agency said in a statement.

The permits would allow mine operators to bury intermittent streams with excess material removed to expose coal seams. Environmental groups including the Sierra Club and the Rainforest Action Network want Obama to ban the practice, arguing it destroys ancient mountain peaks, fouls water and damages the culture of Appalachia.

The applications now go to the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers, which will coordinate changes to reduce potential damage. The aim is to avoid environmental damage and meet the country’s energy and economic needs, Peter Silva, EPA’s assistant administrator for water, wrote in a letter to the corps.

The EPA wants the mine operators to build fewer, smaller so-called valley fills to dispose of debris, Silva said in the letter. The agency also wants the permits to require more environmental monitoring, more information about mining effects on various watersheds and reviews of proposed mitigation plans.

The coal industry estimates mountaintop mines in Appalachia produce 130 million tons of coal a year, most of which goes to generate electricity for 24.7 million customers in the East and South.

“Coal mining throughout Appalachia cannot reassure thousands of anxious workers and their families, and we cannot plan for the economic future of our operations absent a workable, transparent process that provides certainty,” National Mining Association President Hal Quinn said in a statement.

“EPA’s answer of more delay and study is at cross-purposes with our nation’s need for affordable energy, investments and secure jobs.”

The United Mine Workers labor union also criticized the delay.

“It is imperative that the process for approving or rejecting permits be clarified so that everyone can know what to expect,” President Cecil Roberts said in a statement. “Dragging things out only adds unnecessary pressure to coal miners, their families and their communities and makes it much more difficult to meet America’s energy and economic needs.”

All 79 permits were on a preliminary list released by the EPA Sept. 11 and public comments submitted since then support the decision, Silva wrote in the letter. They cover applications for surface coal mines in West Virginia, Kentucky, Ohio and Tennessee. West Virginia and Kentucky rank second and third in U.S. coal production behind Wyoming.

“People all over West Virginia can’t believe this is happening,” West Virginia Coal Association President Bill Raney said in a statement. “They don’t understand why Washington is willing to kill-off good paying jobs when our economy is still on the ropes and the unemployment rate is still unacceptably high.”

Mary Anne Hitt, deputy director of the Sierra Club’s Beyond Coal Campaign, praised the EPA and said the group hopes “it is just one of many positive actions the Obama administration will take toward ending mountaintop removal coal mining. An enhanced review of each of these pending permits will surely prove that this most destructive form of coal mining is incompatible with clean water.”

Rainforest Action Network spokeswoman Nell Greenberg called the action an important step toward a mountaintop mining ban.

“It is clear which way the wind is blowing on mountaintop removal mining,” she said in a statement.

The EPA said the 79 delayed permits represent the corps’ current backlog of mountaintop mining permits, though the National Mining Association put that figure at 250.

(This version CORRECTS Rainforest Action Network reference in 3rd graf.)