EPA objects to Ison Rock Ridge permit
sbroach April 8th, 2009
EPA objects to more mountaintop removal permits
by Ken Ward Jr.
http://blogs.wvgazette.com/coaltattoo/
U.S. EPA officials have lodged objections to three more mountaintop removal mining permits that the federal Army Corps of Engineers was prepared to issue.
Two of the mines in question are in West Virginia, and the third is in Virginia. I’ve posted EPA’s objection letters here, here and here. The mines involved are: A&G Coal Corp.’s Ison Rock Ridge Surface Mine in Wise County, Va., Massey Energy’s Republic No. 1 Surface Mine in Kanawha County, W.Va., and Frasure Creek Mining’s Spring Fork No. 2 Mine in Mingo County, W.Va.
Together, the three operations would bury about eight miles of streams, according to EPA’s letters.
Two of the letters are very similar to others issued by EPA since President Barack Obama took office, under a new agency program to more closely review mountaintop removal.
The Virginia letter is especially interesting, though, because it asks the Corps of Engineers to refuse to approve this mine under Nationwide Permit 21 — which in West Virginia was thrown out last month by U.S. District Judge Joseph R. Goodwin — and instead process the permit application under the Clean Water Act’s Individual Permit, or IP, process.