The Death of MTR? Or False Hope?

It's just one denied permit. But what a permit.

One of the largest mountaintop removal projects in the country was warned of an upcoming permit veto Friday by the Environmental Protection Agency. A letter from the EPA's regional administrator William Early to the Army Corps of Engineers outlined the agency's concerns and concluded that there is “a high potential for downstream water quality excursions under current mining and valley fill practices." The veto, if it goes through, represents a big victory for conservation activists in West Virginia, who have rarely seen the EPA step in when it comes to pollution from mountaintop mining.

SNIP

The use of this type of veto has been exceedingly rare since it was created with the Clean Water Act of 1972. Though 80,000 proposals are processed annually, only 12 permits in 37 years have ever been denied. The EPA's decision against Spruce Mine and the Mingo Logan Coal Co. is part of the Obama administration's campaign to minimize environmental degradation caused by mountaintop removal practices.

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