Holding Them Accountable
Aug 22, 2024
Coal River Mountain Watch has gotten the West Virginia Department of Environmental Protection to greatly curtail its practice of granting indefinite extensions for coal company violation abatement. In July 2023, with allies Appalachian Voices and Sierra Club, we complained to the federal Office of Surface Mining, Reclamation and Enforcement about this practice, focused on a violation by Lexington Coal Company in July 2021. WVDEP had granted 25 extensions over two years, when the law allows only 90 days with very specific exceptions. OSMRE agreed with us and gave WVDEP a Ten Day Notice, giving them 10 days to correct the situation. WVDEP issued a cessation order for that violation and began issuing more cessation orders and "Show Cause" orders and applying the required fines at dozens of coal company permits. Lexington now owes over $3 million in delinquent penalties and has entered into a payment agreement with WVDEP to pay the bulk of their fines within two years. However, WVDEP has continued granting excessive extensions in some cases and otherwise failing to take effective enforcement action. Also, that violation from July 2021 is still unabated more than three years later.
When the new OSMRE rule for submitting complaints went into effect on May 9, 2024, CRMW submitted another Ten Day Notice request detailing WVDEP failures to effectively enforce at six permits operated by Lexington, all on or near Cherry Pond Mountain in our back yard. OSMRE again agreed with us and on May 30, 2024, issued six Ten Day Notices. On June 13, 24, and 25, CRMW participated in site inspections with OSMRE and WVDEP. In their response, WVDEP stated that they had issued a Memorandum to Inspection and Enforcement staff regarding the process of reviewing and extending violations beyond 90 days and provided them additional training.
Other outcomes of the Ten Day Notices and the site inspections include one permit suspension, six Show Cause orders, and a new violation that we pointed out during the site inspection. A public Show Cause hearing is being held Sept. 25, 2024, at 9 AM in the WV Room on the third floor (Room number 3001) at WVDEP headquarters, 601 57th Street, Charleston, WV 25304. At the hearing, Lexington must show cause why its permit U001383 (Lower Big Branch dam and mine) should not be suspended or revoked.
When a member alerted us to a preparation plant permit renewal request by Taishan Coal LLC in neighboring McDowell County, WV, we conducted a permit and violation review. We found that WVDEP had granted extensions on two violations for 448 days beyond the allowable 90 days and on another violation for 30 days beyond. On July 2, 2024, we submitted a Ten Day Notice request. OSMRE issued the TDN to WVDEP on July 9, 2024. On July 31, 2024, WVDEP terminated the oldest two violations, at sediment pond 14, and issued the same violations at the adjacent sediment pond 15. Sure seems sketchy. On September 11, 2024, we have a site visit at the preparation plant to gather information relevant to an upcoming but as yet unannounced public hearing ("informal conference"). The permit number is O002084 (Taishan Coal's Alpheus prep plant), in case you wanted to object to its renewal to Laura.B.Claypool@wv.gov.
