The D.C. Circuit Court of Appeals ruled in favor of the Environmental Protection Agency and environmentalists Tuesday by upholding the agency’s decision on the harm caused by a coal mining operation in West Virginia.
The court ruled that the EPA reasonably and lawfully decided that a huge mountaintop removal mine in the state would cause an unacceptable level of environmental harm if allowed to continue operating.
The Mingo Logan coal firm, a subsidiary of mining giant Arch Coal, said the EPA did not adequately assess cost in withdrawing the permit for its Spruce No. 1 strip-mining operation, nor did it explain the environmental harm it posed.
But the court did not buy into any of the coal company’s arguments.
The EPA’s “withdrawal” of the permit “is a product of its broad veto authority under the [Clean Water Act], not a procedural defect,” the court’s majority ruling read.
The EPA’s resistance to the mine permit has come to the court before, and this is the second time the court has ruled in the agency’s favor. Republicans have argued that the agency does not possess the authority to reject the permits under the Clean Water Act.
Environmentalists felt vindicated by the decision.
“Today, EPA and Appalachian communities won again in the long legal battle over the Spruce No. 1 mine,” said a statement from environmentalists with Earthjustice. “The U.S. Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia Circuit upheld the 2011 decision by the head of the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency to block a permit for the mine issued by the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers due to unacceptable environmental harm it would cause.”
The decision upholds the EPA’s “broad authority to protect water quality from extreme practices like mountaintop removal coal mining,” said Ben Luckett, attorney with Appalachian Mountain Advocates. “Going forward, we urge EPA to use its power to protect the people of Appalachia and beyond from having their water supplies further degraded by irresponsible extractive industries.”
Emma Cheuse, attorney with Earthjustice, said the ruling “closes the final chapter on the devastation mountaintop removal mining would cause at the Spruce site.”
“The court’s affirmation of EPA’s expert scientific decision to prevent unacceptable environmental harm gives West Virginia communities essential and much-needed protection for local waterways, mountains, and a sustainable way of life that doesn’t depend on blowing up mountains, and we will continue calling on EPA to do more to protect communities,” she said.
