Mining commission issues Rosa mine permit; SELC could appeal

Rosa Mine highwall, Cold Branch area. Augers would extract coal from points of entry near the base of the highwall, penetrating horizontally to a depth of 450 feet to remove coal from the narrow seam. The Alabama Surface Mining Commission (ASMC) last week gave notice of its decision to issue a permit to MCoal Corporation to mine coal at the Rosa Mine location in Blount County. The notice appears among legal notices in this edition of The Blount Countian.

Interested parties will have 30 days to file appeals to the decision, according to Fred Orange, ASMC project manager for the Rosa mine permit. The 30-day period begins today with the publication of the notice.

The permit issued, P3931-08-14-S, covers an auger mining operation of 553 acres. Bond was posted for only increment 5, consisting of 182 acres located in the area of Cornelius and Nevis mountains, lying along the ridge north of U.S. 231 about a mile west of Rosa.

Jerry Gordon-Hellman, spokesman for the Rosa Mine Watchdog Committee, said a decision on whether to appeal has not yet been made.

“Our legal representative, the Southern Environmental Law Center has just received the permit and is reviewing it to make a determination as to whether to appeal,” he said. “We have full confidence in our legal team.”

The SELC is a firm with offices representing six southeastern states including Alabama, and a national office in Washington, D.C. It specializes in shaping, implementing, and enforcing state and national environmental law and policy.

The SELC represents the Black Warrior Riverkeeper and the Friends of the Locust Fork River, having already filed on their behalf an appeal of a water quality permit for Rosa Mine issued on Oct. 23 by the Alabama Department of Environmental Management (ADEM).

The ASMC permit issued last week addresses mining operations, as distinct from water quality matters, over which ADEM has primary jurisdiction. SELC also represents the Black Warrior Riverkeeper in its challenge to ADEM in the matter of the Shepherd Bend coal mine located in Walker County.

The SELC filing of Nov. 20 contends that ADEM made at least four errors in issuing the National Pollutant Discharge Elimination System (NYPDES) permit, each of which provides a basis for invalidating it. The filing stated that ADEM:

•failed to require submittal of a pollution abatement and prevention plan, required in all cases by its own regulations and without which there is no basis for evaluating the degree of the pollution hazard.

•improperly authorized discharges to a stream that is already impaired and not meeting water quality criteria. Federal and state regulations prohibit issuing a permit that will contribute to a violation of water quality standards.

•improperly exempted discharge limitations for iron, manganese, silver, lead, and total suspended solids during precipitation events, violating Alabama water quality criteria.

•failed to take into account in its permit total dissolved solids, sulfates, chlorides and aluminum, all of which are known to be present at unacceptable levels in coal-mining discharges, thus violating both state and federal regulations.

MCoal Corporation attorneys have filed a motion to dismiss the SELC action challenging the permit issued by ADEM.