Appalachia

The Charleston Gazette
Tuesday, September 30, 2014
EPA wins another round on Spruce Mine veto
By Ken Ward Jr., Staff writer

The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency on Tuesday won another major legal victory in the long saga of one of the largest mountaintop removal mining permits in West Virginia history.

U.S. District Judge Amy Berman Jackson concluded that the agency’s veto of a Clean Water Act permit for Arch Coal’s Spruce No. 1 Mine in Logan County was “reasonable, supported by the record, and based on considerations within EPA’s purview.”

In a 50-page opinion, the judge ruled with EPA on the merits of the agency’s January 2011 decision to use its water pollution oversight authority to rescind a permit that had been previously issued to Arch Coal by the federal Army Corps of Engineers.

The EPA veto has been the subject of much criticism from coal company officials and coalfield political leaders, who argued it was unfair to revoke a previously approved permit, and said the move was part of a broader Obama administration effort to destroy the mining industry....

- See more at: http://www.wvgazette.com/article/20140930/GZ01/140939918/1419#sthash.CxwNBG2m.dpuf