US Army Corps Asks Court Not To Rehear Mountaintop-Mining Case
2009年4月29日 - 7:50AM
Dow Jones News
The U.S. Army Corps of Engineers Tuesday asked a federal court
not to rehear a closely watched case on mountaintop-removal coal
mining, saying it's taking new steps to scrutinize the
environmental effects of the practice.
The Obama administration in its first months has moved to
toughen regulations of mountaintop removal, by which the tops of
mountains are sheared off to gain access to coal seams. But
Tuesday's filing in the U.S. Fourth Circuit Court of Appeals in
Virginia backs up the coal industry, which is fighting an appeal by
environmental groups.
The four-year-old federal case focuses on Army Corps permits for
the disposal of rock and other material from four proposed mines.
Environmental groups say allowing companies to dump the rubble from
mountaintop mining in nearby valleys damages water quality and
violates the Clean Water Act.
The environmental groups won in district court, but a circuit
court panel overturned the ruling in February, setting up the
current appeal to the full circuit court.
Lawyers for Army Corps said the case doesn't merit further
review because the agency is developing a new tool to analyze the
effects of the mining practice on streams in West Virginia. At the
same time, the Corps and the Environmental Protection Agency are
looking at the overall permitting process.
"Nothing in the opinion will constrain the Corps and EPA in
deciding how to analyze permits in the future, which could include
additional environmental safeguards," the Army Corps said in its
brief.
The Obama administration on Monday sought to reverse a
last-minute Bush administration rule that made it easier for
companies to dispose of waste from the mining practice. The EPA
last month said it would scrutinize more than a hundred mining
permits because of concerns over the effects on water quality.
But Jennifer Chavez, an attorney for environmental group
Earthjustice, described the administration's approach as
"schizophrenic" so far, saying it needs to bring together federal
agencies to come up with a coherent policy on mountaintop
mining.
"There are a lot of inconsistencies," she said.
Decisions on the mining practice would most greatly affect
central Appalachian surface-mining operations, which account for
about 10% of U.S. coal production, according to Energy Information
Administration data.
-By Mark Peters, Dow Jones Newswires; 201-938-4604;
mark.peters@dowjones.com