EPA to deny permit to infamous coal mine

[Meeker Morgan]

EPA to deny permit to infamous coal mine
http://rawstory.com/2009/10/epa-deny-permit-infamous-coal/

One of the largest mountaintop removal projects in the country was warned of an upcoming permit veto Friday by the Environmental Protection Agency. A letter from the EPA's regional administrator William Early to the Army Corps of Engineers outlined the agency's concerns and concluded that there is “a high potential for downstream water quality excursions under current mining and valley fill practices." The veto, if it goes through, represents a big victory for conservation activists in West Virginia, who have rarely seen the EPA step in when it comes to pollution from mountaintop mining.

-- snip --

Environmentalists have been fighting the Spruce Mine operation for more than ten years. The proposal in 1998 for a 3,110-acre strip mine came from Arch Coal Co., and would have buried ten miles of stream valleys. That permit was blocked by the district court, and the parcel of land was shifted to a non-union subsidiary, Mingo Logan Coal.

-- snip --

Especially notice the bit about how it was originally tied up with union busting.

[Jamastiene]

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