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Winds of Change Newsletter, August 2009 See sidebar for table of contents
Board Adds Conditions to Disputed Fayette County
Mine Permit
by Ken Ward Jr., Excerpted from June 9,
2009, Charleston Gazette
The state Surface Mine Board on June 9 upheld the
renewal of a CONSOL Energy strip mine permit where company officials had
not fixed reclamation problems and water quality violations.
During a daylong hearing Tuesday, (citizen group
attorney) Derek Teaney had urged board members to overturn the state
Department of Environmental Protections renewal of the permit for
CONSOL subsidiary Powelltons Bridge Fork West Surface Mine (on Gauley
Mountain).
"It really is this simple not a day has gone by since
it applied to renew its permit when Powellton has been in compliance,"
Teaney told board members during the hearing in Charleston.
State inspectors had cited Powellton for landslides that
sent rocks, dirt and debris outside of the mines legal permit area.
Teaney also argued that DEP was wrong to approve the
permit when Powellton continues to have problems complying with its
water pollution permit limits for iron and suspended solids.
A.M. "Fenway" Pollack, a lawyer for DEP, told board
members if his agency did not renew permits for companies with
outstanding water pollution violations, no mining permits would ever be
renewed. "Taken to its logical conclusion, that would mean no one gets
renewal," Pollack said. "Well just shut down mining."
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