SAY NO to relaxing coal regs in Ohio!

[Towntalk]

From todays New York Times:

Coal Mining Debris Rule Is Approved
http://www.nytimes.com/2008/12/03/washington/03mining.html

[irishbobcat]

Update: The Columbus Dispatch Editorial Board came out against this bill this morning:

Editorial: Don't muddy the waters
Environmental-protection experts should regulate water pollution from mines
Wednesday,  December 3, 2008 3:25 AM


The Ohio Environmental Protection Agency should be in charge of protecting the state's waterways from pollution, whether that pollution comes from a factory pipe, a large-scale farm or the byproducts of mining coal. A proposed bill to put state mining officials in charge of granting water-pollution permits for coal mines is a bad idea.

State Sen. Timothy J. Grendell, R-Chesterland, is behind the bill to switch authority from the EPA to mining bureaucrats in the Ohio Department of Natural Resources.

This proposal is similar to a 2001 state law -- also a bad idea -- that transferred the state EPA's authority to regulate large-scale livestock farms to the Department of Agriculture. That transfer still isn't final, because the U.S. EPA, which has ultimate responsibility for enforcing the 1972 federal Clean Water Act, hasn't approved it.

In a recent public-comment meeting, opponents of the farm-regulation switch pointed out that the Department of Agriculture's mission is to promote farming in Ohio, not to be a watchdog.

The same potential for conflict of interest exists in putting ODNR's Division of Mineral Resources Management in charge of water-pollution permits for mines.

The timing of the bill lends weight to the suspicion that the real goal is to allow an end run by a major mine company that has been denied a permit by the EPA.

Murray Energy Corp., owner of Ohio's largest underground coal mines, wants to bury Casey Run, a 2-mile-long stream in eastern Ohio, under a 1.85-billion-gallon coal-slurry lagoon.

Slurry is water contaminated with coal dust after it has been used to wash coal. In 2005, a broken slurry pipeline from a Murray Energy-owned mine blackened 2,300 feet of Belmont County's Captina Creek, killing thousands of fish in a habitat that supports the endangered hellbender salamander.

Casey Run is a tributary of Captina Creek. EPA scientists, in recommending denial of the permit for the massive lagoon, said it would pose "insurmountable" environmental concerns for the high-quality water resource.

Murray officials say they'll have to close two mines employing about 1,000 people if they can't build the slurry lagoon, but EPA and ODNR officials said the company could find other ways to dispose of its waste.

Another supposed justification for the bill is a claim that the Ohio EPA takes too long to review mining permits. This appears to be a moot point. The bill would give mine regulators a six-month deadline for approving or denying permits. In recent months, the EPA has eliminated its backlog of applications and has pledged to handle new ones within six months.

Murray Energy's checkered track record of multiple environmental and safety violations in Ohio and elsewhere, including the Crandall Canyon mine cave-in that killed six men in Utah in August 2007, argues against easing regulation of the company.

Regardless of one company's history, safeguarding Ohio's waterways should remain with the agency for which environmental protection is the core mission.


Dennis Spisak
Mahoning Valley Green Party

[irishbobcat]

SAY NO to relaxing coal regs in Ohio!
Posted by: D.S.Spisak (IP Logged)
Date: December 02, 2008 10:18PM


This week, the Environment and Natural Resources committee of the Ohio Senate will consider a bill that would strip the Ohio EPA of authority to issue coal mining permits, delegating that authority instead to the Ohio Department of Natural Resources - a much more industry-friendly agency.

Sierra Club vigorously opposes this bill, as do EPA and DNR themselves. In fact, the only people to benefit would be Ohio's coal industry, especially companies like Ohio Valley Coal owned by Bob Murray. Ohio Valley Coal recently applied for a permit to drain one of Ohio's most pristine streams and fill the streambed with toxic coal slurry. When the Ohio EPA nixed that idea, though, Murray's coal industry friends hatched a new plan: take away the EPA's authority altogether. It's the political version of firing the ref who called a foul on you.

Additionally, the bill (Senate Bill 386) would take jurisdiction over appeals of mining permits away from the Environmental Review Appeals Commission and give it to the coal-dominated Reclamation Commission, whose chair doubles as a public representative of the coal industry. We must not allow this bill to pass. Not only will it harm the environment, but it's the wrong move at this moment of budget crisis; transferring permitting authority to Ohio DNR will incur the costs of training new personnel and establishing a brand new program, when such a program already exists within Ohio EPA.

Please email state senator to request that he/she vote AGAINST Senate Bill 386.

Thank you for all your hard work.

Sincerely,

Nachy Kanfer
National Coal Campaign - Ohio
Sierra Club


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