EPA opposes 11 Ky. coal mining water permits
James Bruggers
Courier-Journal
10/06/2010
The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency is blocking nearly a dozen water discharge permits sought by coal mines in Kentucky, saying they fail to protect eastern Kentucky waterways.
It’s the first time in about 20 years the federal agency has made such a move in Kentucky, but it is similar to actions that it’s made in other Appalachian states, where regulators are complaining that the EPA is overstepping its bounds.
In objection letters about the permits from its Atlanta office to the Kentucky Division of Water, the EPA cited the state’s own assessment of poor water quality in the regions where the permits are sought. And it said state regulators, in moving to approve the permits, failed to conduct analyses to determine whether proposed discharges from new surface mining would likely violate state water quality standards.
EPA officials also said the state failed to include adequate pollution limits in the permits.
The EPA objections set up the potential for the federal government to take over the issuing of those permits and any future permits, as well as future enforcement actions, said R. Bruce Scott, commissioner of the Kentucky Department of Environmental Protection.
The state has 90 days to submit revised permits to the EPA, or it can also ask for a public hearing, which Scott said the state is inclined to do.
“It is our intent to try to satisfy some of the objections, or all of the objections, the EPA has identified,” he said, although he added that he’s not sure that’s possible.
Scott noted that regulators across Appalachia are frustrated with the Obama administration’s actions on coal mining.
West Virginia Gov. Joe Manchin, a Democrat running for the U.S. Senate, announced Wednesday that his state’s environmental regulators had filed a lawsuit aimed at stopping the EPA’s moves on mining in his state.
“The states would like to know, ‘Where is this going? The worst-case scenario is that the EPA objects to every permit and they become the permitting authority for all coal mining,” said Scott. “Absent a change of course, that seems to be where this train wreck is going.”
