EPA Stops Largest Mountaintop Mining Operation in Appalachia

The Environmental Protection Agency on Friday halted the largest mountaintop coal mining operation in Appalachia ever to receive a federal permit--the first time in the EPA's 37-year history that the agency has used its regulatory power to stop an already approved project.

Mountaintop mining is when coal companies blast the tops off mountains to get at the coal underneath, dumping millions of tons of rubble into adjacent valleys, burying streams, contaminating drinking water, and damaging local communities.

The U.S. Army Corps of Engineers issues permits for mountaintop mining, but Congress long ago granted the EPA authority to veto the permits if the mining operations threaten water quality or put the environment at significant risk. The EPA told the Corps that it was placing a hold on the Spruce No. 1 Mine in Logan County, West Virginia, because of the unusually high potential for environmental damage.

"Local residents have been actively challenging the approval of this permit at the Spruce No. 1 Mine in Logan County for more than a decade," said Ed Hopkins, Director of Environmental Quality for the Sierra Club. "This massive mine would have buried seven miles of streams, destroyed thousands of acres of land and disrupted local communities."

This new action follows the Obama administration's pledge last spring to increase its scrutiny and regulation of mountaintop mining. About two weeks ago, the EPA announced its plans to look harder than usual at 79 permit applications for mountaintop mining operations in Kentucky, West Virginia, Ohio and Tennessee to make sure the proposed mines will not cause water pollution or violate the Clean Water Act before allowing permits to be issued.