Hearings held on ADEM’s Rosa mine water permits

Members of the Rosamine Watchdog group and allied environmental organizations attended an administrative hearing held Feb. 22 to rule on their appeal of water quality permits the Alabama Department of Environmental Management (ADEM) issued last year.

The permits, issued to the MCoal Corporation of Vancouver, Canada, in effect approved the company’s proposed mining operations near Rosa from the standpoint of their impact on water quality in the surrounding area. The validity of the permits was challenged by the environmental coalition in a complaint filed in November.

Present at the hearing were five members of the local Rosamine Watchdog group, along with attorney Gil Rogers of the Southern Environmental Law Center, Sam Howell of Friends of the Locust Fork River, and Nelson Brooke, Black Warrior Riverkeeper. Also present were attorneys representing MCoal Corporation and ADEM.

An administrative law judge appointed by the attorney general’s office conducted the hearing on behalf of the Environmental Management Commission (EMC), which oversees ADEM. The decision of the administrative law judge, and subsequent ruling by the EMC, is subject to appeal by either side to the Mongomery Circuit Court.

According to Rogers, a recommendation to the EMC from the administrative law judge is expected in late April to mid- May. The EMC will then decide on the status of the ADEM permit.

“The EMC meets once every two months,” Rogers said. “So the exact timing of the next steps depends on when the recommendation is made relative to the EMC’s next scheduled meeting.”