Mountain Watershed Association Appeals Rustic Ridge Deep Mine Permit
By: Youghiogheny Riverkeeper
By Krissy Kasserman, Youghiogheny Riverkeeper. A version of this post originally appeared on Youghiogheny Riverkeeper’s blog.
On Friday, January 13th, the Mountain Watershed Association, home of the Youghiogheny Riverkeeper, filed an appeal of the issuance of a mining permit for LCT Energy LLC’s Rustic Ridge #1 mine with the Pennsylvania Environmental Hearing Board. The Rustic Ridge deep mine, located in the Indian Creek sub-basin of the Youghiogheny River watershed, will mine metallurgical coal and spans nearly 3,000 underground acres with a 67 acre surface facility.
By issuing this permit, the Pennsylvania Department of Environmental Protection (DEP) has disregarded volumes of expert opinion submitted regarding the threats posed by the mine. The appeal states that the permitted barriers are insufficient to prevent illicit discharges into the watershed and that the DEP did not adequately review this risky proposal. The same water pollution was predicted by DEP in 1994 when it denied a very similar deep mine proposal in the same area—a denial which was upheld by the Pennsylvania Environmental Hearing Board in 1996.
As there have been no major geologic events in the permitted area since 1994 that would alter the potential for harms previously identified by the DEP, in issuing this permit the DEP has ignored their own findings from 1994.
The Indian Creek sub-basin of the Youghiogheny River is approximately 125 square miles and contains over 130 toxic discharges from abandoned mines. Over $7 million in taxpayer funds have been invested in cleaning up these dangerous and polluting discharges. Cleanup efforts have had a measurable impact on water quality in Indian Creek and the Youghiogheny River and have helped to facilitate the emergence of a new, sustainable economy—one that shows the region beginning to transition away from coal. This newly permitted deep mine places that progress and the taxpayer investment at risk.
LCT Energy, in what is being widely viewed as a bribe, has stated a $2 million “community trust” will be established to support area projects, but only if residents did not exercise their legal right to appeal the permit issuance. LCT’s refusal to fund the community trust in the event of an appeal shows both their lack of commitment to our community and their lack of confidence in their proposal. The amount offered for the community trust is insultingly insufficient when compared to the potential environmental and economic devastation.
The coal industry has been in a steep decline for years. As communities in coal country begin to transition from fossil fuels to a clean energy economy, it is unfathomable that Pennsylvania’s DEP would jeopardize existing environmental restoration efforts and future economic opportunities by issuing such a dangerous and risky permit so that a privately-held coal company can experience what are certainly short-term gains.
A hearing date for the appeal will be set within the next several weeks.