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Winds of Change Newsletter, September 2008 See sidebar for table of contents
Mines Selenium Extensions Wrong, Appeals Board Finds
Excerpted from an article by Ken Ward
Jr., Charleston Gazette, June 13, 2008
The Manchin administration must revisit two dozen orders
that gave coal operators three additional years to fix selenium
pollution violations, a state appeals board ruled Thursday (in response
to a case filed by attorneys from the Appalachian Center for the
Economy and the Environment on behalf of OVEC, West Virginia
Highlands Conservancy and Coal River Mountain Watch).
Environmental Quality Board members unanimously ruled
that the Department of Environmental Protection wrongly gave the coal
industry a blanket extension of time to comply with selenium limits.
In a 46-page decision, board members ordered DEP to come
up with site-specific compliance schedules within 30 days. Companies
affected include subsidiaries of Massey Energy, Magnum Coal and CONSOL
Energy Inc.
Board members sided with coal company lawyers on a
variety of legal issues in the case, but also harshly criticized the
industry and DEP for a slow and ineffective response to growing concern
over selenium runoff from mining operations
In its ruling, signed by Chairman Ed Snyder, the
environmental board made it clear that it thinks DEP and the industry
are still not moving quickly enough.
"What is perhaps even more amazing is how little the
WVDEP seems to expect from the coal industry," the ruling said. "WVDEP
and the coal industry are asking for more time and yet the lack of
urgency continues."
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