Board Halts a New Mine in Taylor: Insists ICG Revise Its Tygart Permit
By J. Miles Layton, The Dominion Post, Morgantown, W.Va.
Nov. 23–The state’s Surface Mine Board has repealed a permit from the state’s Department of Environmental Protection to allow a new underground longwall mine in Taylor County.
The board ruled 4-2 this past week to reverse DEP Secretary Stephanie Timmermeyer’s decision to approve International Coal Group’s Tygart No. 1 Mine permit.
The board ordered the department to make ICG submit a new analysis of the mine’s potential impacts on water quality, and to devise and start a new water monitoring plan for discharges coming from the mine.
Then, DEP must study that analysis and write a new report on the mine’s potential water impacts. DEP must then use those new studies to decide if the permit should be issued.
As the state senator representing Taylor County, Jon Blair Hunter, DMonongalia, brought up his concerns about ICG’s permit to the board this past week.
“I was pleased with the decision of the Surface Mining Board,” he said, “because there were some major problems with the permit application that could have eventually caused perpetual water pollution and could have threatened Tygart Lake, even conceivably the dam because the mine would have been too close to the dam.
“With the massive surface subsidence, there was a possibility that more than 100 homes could have been affected. This decision will make ICG go back and think about how they are going to redo this; therefore, I think it’s better for everybody. I just want to make sure if they do this, they do it in a way that causes the least amount of environmental harm as possible.”
A citizens group of more than 100 families, called Taylor Environmental Advocacy Membership, had challenged the permit. TEAM Vice President Elizabeth Baldwin said that when the DEP approved the permit earlier this year, the group hired an environmental lawyer, Joe Lovett, of the Appalachian Center for the Economy and the Environment, to review the surface mining permit and appeal to the state Surface Mine Board.
“It is a large victory for us,” Baldwin said. “Our goal is prevent damage to the surface land and water, and not to keep the mine out or stop coal mining. We just want to make sure that it is done responsibly so that it doesn’t destroy Taylor County for future generations.”
Scott Depot-based ICG wants to mine about 3.5 million tons of coal every year at the mine, proposed for just southeast of Grafton. The mine would employ about 380 workers and cover about 6,000 acres underground next to Tygart Lake and the state park there.
“International Coal Group does not expect its development schedule for Tygart No. 1 to be adversely affected by the decision of the Surface Mine Board,” said Ira Gamm, ICG vice president.
The Surface Mine Board ordered the DEP to have ICG revise a stream flow monitoring plan and to document its projections related to postmining seepage from the underground mine, Gamm said.
The board order requires the DEP to act on the revised plans within 30 days of submittal, which is expected to provide adequate time before the planned start of major construction in 2008. Production at the facility will begin in 2009.
Tygart Lake is the source of drinking water for many counties. Baldwin said there are abandoned mine shafts from the early part of the 1900s along the edge of the lake. When the water is up during the summer, these mines are under water.
If the company does enough longwall mining without leaving a safety buffer, Baldwin said, it is possible the lake water could break through and possibly become a safety issue for coal miners.
Baldwin said the mine could potentially pollute the lake if water from the new mine transfers to an old mine and into the lake.
Scientists hired by TEAM said 3 billion gallons of polluted water would eventually fill the mine voids and threaten the quality of the lake’s water, she said. Longwall mining could affect nearby stream beds as well.
“We are concerned about the water quantity and quality,” Baldwin said. “We hope that when the company resubmits its permits, that they will take into account the process to protect the area’s drinking water system.
“Fortunately,” she said, “for everyone who drinks this water and people who live and visit Taylor County and Tygart Lake, it worked out. There will be some additional protection because of the decision of the Office of Surface Mining Board. That’s a good thing.”
Gamm said he would not comment on Baldwin’s assertions other than to say the DEP supported the original permit, and the company will make the revisions to comply with the board’s order.
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