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This article originally provided by
The Charleston Gazette
By Ken Ward Jr.
Staff writer
CHARLESTON, W.Va. -- Federal regulators may not approve new mountaintop removal operations through a streamlined permitting process until they further study the impacts of the proposed mining, a federal judge ruled this morning.
U.S. District Judge Joseph R. Goodwin issued an injunction that blocked the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers from authorizing new valley fills through its "nationwide permit" procedure.
In a long-awaited ruling, Goodwin concludes that the corps had not fully examined the cumulative impacts of approving mountaintop removal mines through this streamlined procedure.
"The loss of thousands of miles of streams in Appalachia over the past twenty years ... and the loss of over 200 miles of streams in West Virginia alone vividly illustrates the impacts associated with mountaintop mining," Goodwin wrote in a 63-page opinion.
Goodwin ruled in a case that had been awaiting a decision since August 2007, when lawyers asked the judge to review new issues after a federal appeals court overturned a previous decision by Goodwin against the corps.
The decision puts more pressure on the Obama administration to work out its plans for dealing with the mountaintop removal issue. Corps lawyers have 60 days to decide if they will appeal Goodwin's decision.
"Judge Goodwin, I think, properly observed that the corps has not be complying with the law," said Joe Lovett, director of the Appalachian Center for the Economy and the Environment. "I hope with the new Obama administration the corps was already in the process of changing its behavior, and I hope this will help it along."
The case differs from the one in front of U.S. District Judge Robert C. Chambers. Chambers ruled on -- and was later overturned by the 4th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals on -- whether the corps had properly studied the potential impacts of "individual" clean water act permits for mountaintop removal mines.
Goodwin was reviewing, in a suit brought by the Ohio Valley Environmental Coalition and other groups, the corps' previously typical practice of using the more streamlined "nationwide permit" process for valley fills.
Since Goodwin's initial ruling in July 2004, the coal industry has more frequently been using individual permits than the streamlined process, said Carol Raulston, spokeswoman for the National Mining Association.
But the ruling is still another blow to the coal industry, and a victory for citizen groups who are fighting to reduce or eliminate mountaintop removal.
Since Jan. 1, the corps' Huntington District has issued at least three nationwide permit authorizations for surface mining activities, according to agency records.
Goodwin's ruling and injunction apply only within the boundaries of the U.S. District Court's Southern District of West Virginia.
But within the district, the judge not only enjoined the corps from authorizing new mines under the streamlined process, but also blocked mine operators who intervened in the case "from all activities authorized" under the streamlined permit process.
Read more in Wednesday's Gazette.
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