Judge Rules Mountaintop Removal Coal Mines Polluting West Virginia Waterways, Finds State Efforts to Protect the Mines Invalid
Sierra Club and its coal-field allies celebrated a monumental win on February 3, when a federal district court judge in West Virginia ruled that Powellton Coal Company repeatedly violated the law by polluting the state’s waterways with discharges from its surface mines. The judge then ordered more proceedings to investigate scores of additional violations at Powellton’s Bridge Fork mountaintop removal coal mining complex in Fayette County. In reaching his decision, the judge found that “modification orders” the West Virginia Department of Environmental Protection had attempted to use to insulate the coal company from clean water regulations were invalid.
Sierra Club and the Ansted Historic Preservation Council initially challenged the Bridge Fork mountaintop removal coal mining complex last year, raising serious concerns about the pollution from the mine’s valley fills and its impact on historic sites, local communities and tourist attractions in the area. Pollution from the Bridge Fork mining complex has continually exceeded legal limits, leading to high levels of toxic aluminum, manganese and other pollution in nearby waterways. The waterways affected by the pollution discharged from the Bridge Fork complex include world class whitewater rivers and trout streams.
This victory will have far-reaching implications in West Virginia, as coal mining companies can no longer hide behind extremely lenient modification orders and compliance schedules issued by state regulators.
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PATH Developers Withdraw Application for Approval of Transmission Line
Sierra Club and it allies celebrated another major victory when on December 29, 2009, developers of the Potomac-Appalachian Transmission Highline (PATH), a high-voltage transmission line designed to carry dirty coal-fired power from West Virginia to the east coast, asked Virginia regulators to withdraw their application for approval of the line. The withdrawal was based on new analysis by PJM, the region’s grid operator, showing that energy conservation measures like demand management and energy efficiency have forestalled the need for the $1.8 billion project for the time being. American Electric Power (AEP) and Allegheny, PATH’s developers, aren’t sure when the transmission line might be needed or when they might file a new application in Virginia, but don’t expect to do so before late 2010.
The new analysis leading to PATH’s withdrawal was ordered by the Virginia State Corporation Commission in direct response to Sierra Club’s expert testimony. Sierra Club, represented by Earthjustice, submitted expert testimony showing the development of demand response and energy conservation programs in Northeastern states is reducing the need for expensive transmission lines and cheaper, alternative forms of energy are available in the region. Sierra Club’s experts also demonstrated that the proposed line would actually make the eastern grid less reliable and increase air pollution.
PATH is facing hurdles in West Virginia and Maryland as well. In West Virginia, the state Public Service Commission has delayed its formal hearings on PATH until late 2010, and has stated that it will not make a final decision on the project's application until February 2011. In September 2009, largely due to Sierra Club’s involvement, the Maryland Public Service Commission threw out the PATH application, ruling that it was improperly filed because a PATH company formed for the project was not an "electric company" under Maryland law. Despite admitting in Virginia that the line is not needed in the foreseeable future, developers of PATH have since submitted a new application in Maryland. Sierra Club is urging Maryland regulators to dismiss the application while the need for the project is being re-evaluated.
AEP and Allegheny’s announcement has had resounding effects; two other coal-by-wire lines have since been delayed in the East—the Mid-Atlantic Power Pathway, which would extend from Virginia to Delaware, and the Susquehanna Roseland line, which would originate in Pennsylvania and end in New Jersey. To read more, click here!
Sierra Club and Allies Take Action to Protect Communities from Hazardous Coal Dust
On December 7, 2009, Sierra Club and its allies filed a petition with the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) asking the agency to reconsider its new air pollution standards for coal preparation and processing plants. The groups object to EPA’s decision to exclude from the standards any limits on coal dust pollution from roads at the coal preparation plants. At the same time, the groups filed a formal challenge to the new rule with the federal Court of Appeals for the D.C. Circuit.
Coal prep plants crush, sort, clean and dry coal to prepare it for combustion, and play a key role in both the coal mining and electric utility industry. There are more than 250 coal prep plants in operation nationwide, with a high concentration of facilities found in Appalachia. Coal dust emissions from trucks transporting coal across roadways at coal prep plants are a significant source of pollutants that cause serious health problems. Every day, hundreds of trucks servicing these plants track fine coal particles onto roads and then drive over them, stirring coal dust into the air. Coal dust is an especially dangerous contaminant that contains traces of the same hazardous compounds that are released when coal is combusted, such as arsenic, mercury, and uranium.
As Mary Anne Hitt, Deputy Director of the Sierra Club's Beyond Coal Campaign said, "[t]he EPA has to address all sources of dust coming from these coal prep plants, including the significant amount of dust that comes from trucks and roads. By failing to provide limits on road dust, the EPA has not satisfied its duty to protect public health."
Sierra Club, along with Appalachian Voices and the Southern Appalachian Mountain Stewards, is represented by Earthjustice in this challenge.
hat we do: The Sierra Club is the nation's leader in grassroots environmental litigation. The Club's Environmental Law Program creates and prosecutes the legal strategies for the Sierra Club's nationwide grassroots campaigns. The Environmental Law Program's docket covers the entire range of environmental issues, from local fights over ill-planned sprawl to cases of national significance on clean air, clean water and wilderness.
