Mining Industries Effect On Nature!
COMPREHENSIVE PLAN FOR MOUNTAINTOP MINING: ENVIRONMENTAL ASSESSMENT, MORE OVERSIGHT
PHILADELPHIA - The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency
announced a comprehensive unified federal plan to regulate mountaintop coal mining and
associated valley fills in Appalachia that will permit surface mines, but will
substantially improve the way mountaintop mining is carried out to protect valley streams
and other environmental resources.
The proposal, developed by four federal agencies, for the first time
ever will require an overall environmental assessment of all surface mines with a valley
fill draining more than 250 acres. EPA participated in the development of an
inter-agency agreement with the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers and two branches of the U. S.
Interior Department, the Office of Surface Mining and the Fish and Wildlife Service.
Under the new plan, EPA and the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers agreed
to joint environmental review of new mining operations and valley fills under the Clean
Water Act. According to W. Michael McCabe, administrator of EPA's mid-Atlantic region,
"Large surface mines will now have to undergo an exhaustive environmental assessment
before they can be permitted. The comprehensive, unified federal plan will ensure
that all the environmental impacts can be limited, and those that do occur will be
properly mitigated."
Central to the unified policy is a comprehensive environmental
impact assessment to be conducted by the four federal agencies, with cooperation
from the West Virginia Department of Environmental Protection and other Appalachian
States. The conclusions of the environmental impact statement, which the agencies
intend to issue in two years, will guide the federal government on long-term changes to
regulations, policies and guidelines governing mountaintop mining and valley fills.
Today's agreement sets interim reforms to streamline and regulate mining permits
until a full environmental impact statement is issued.
On the basis of this federal interagency commitment to require
significantly better environmental reviews and protection measures for mining projects,
the West Virginia plaintiffs have agreed to settle their lawsuit against the federal
government in the case Bragg et al. V. Robertson, et al.
The EPA also announced today that it has won major concessions from Arch
Coal, Inc. to protect the environment, and therefore would lift objections to a water
discharge permit for the Spruce No.1 surface mine in Logan County, W.Va. That mine
will be operated by Hobet Mining Co., a subsidiary of Arch, a St. Louis, Mo. company.
"This permit requires significant concessions from Hobet.
We conducted the most thorough environmental review of any mining permit in West
Virginia history. Armed with extensive field data, we were able to require the
company to dramatically scale back its operations, and to perform projects that will
benefit the local environment," McCabe explained.
To obtain the EPA permit, Hobet was required to scale back by about 40 percent the buried
streams at Spruce No. 1 Mine, from 12 acres of stream buried to only 7.4 acres.
Hobet also agreed to eliminate two of five proposed valley fills and shrink two
others. The company agreed to reduce by 1,200 acres the drainage area impacted by
valley fills. That's a 41 percent reduction. Furthermore, Hobet's Clean Water Act
permit to discharge from the site is limited to only five of the 13 years that Hobet
originally anticipated mining at Spruce No.1.
In addition to significant concessions in the size and scope of its Hobet mine, Arch Coal
has agreed to several extensive reclamation projects, including planting 15,000 hardwood
trees, establishing a habitat for the endangered Indiana Bat, and providing 280 acres of
forest in Chief Logan State Park. The coal company also will construct four acres of
perennial stream on its number 21 site and another nine acres of stream on its Dal-Tex
site.
Finally, Arch Coal will provide fisheries habitat for a total of 14, 000 feet of the Coal
River at three or more stretches. The company will work closely with the West
Virginia Division of Natural Resources as it develops these projects.
"Getting to this point has been a time-consuming process
because reform takes time, trust, and cooperation. In addition to our federal and
state partners, as well as the plaintiffs, I also want to acknowledge the constructive
contributions made to resolve these issues by West Virginia's congressional delegation,
especially the offices of Senator Byrd, Representative Rahall and Representative
Wise," said McCabe.
