Sure hope that this decision holds.

~ Becky in Tucson

Court Upholds EPA's Power To Protect Communities From Mountaintop Removal Mining

... the U.S. Court of Appeals for the D.C. Circuit upheld the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency's legal authority to veto a mining permit that the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers had issued. The decision reverses the lower court's contrary ruling, and is a major blow to the coal industry's attempt to prevent EPA from protecting communities from the harm caused by mountaintop removal mining in Appalachia. The case will now go back to the D.C. District Court for briefing on other claims.
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Quotes From the Court's Opinion:

- "Section 404 [of the Clean Water Act] imposes no temporal limit on the Administrator [of EPA's] authority to withdraw the Corps's specification [or permit] but instead expressly empowers him to prohibit, restrict or withdraw the specification 'whenever' he makes a determination that the statutory 'unacceptable adverse effect' will result.

- "[T]he unambiguous language of subsection 404(c) manifests Congress's intent to confer on EPA a broad veto power extending beyond the permit issuance." (Op. at 10) (emphasis added).

- "[T]he [EPA] has, in effect, the final say on the specified disposal sites...." (Op. at 12).

- The Court also explained that when EPA withdrew the specifications for streams as disposal sites, it "thereby prohibit[ed] Mingo Logan from discharging into them," under the Clean Water Act. (Op. at 2).

Read the full opinion.

More Information:
The Corps' permit would have allowed the Mingo Logan coal company to bury and destroy over six miles of pristine mountain streams under mining waste dumps (called "valley fills") created from the destruction of over 2,000 acres of land, releasing harmful pollutants into downstream waters that sustain local communities and wildlife.

Appalachian citizen groups have been fighting to save the streams that would be destroyed by the Spruce Mine for more than a decade—as one of the largest, most harmful mountaintop removal mines ever proposed.