Fighting One Coal Mine at a Time

Through the other end of the telescope from the global -warming effects of burning coal is the local devastation to drinking water by mountaintop removal mines.

That battle in the trenches saw a small victory yesterday.

Bill Estep at the Herald:

A judge has temporarily blocked work at a large, disputed surface mine in Knott and Perry counties.

U.S. District Judge Thomas B. Russell issued a temporary injunction directing the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers to temporarily suspend the permit it issued to Leeco Inc., a subsidiary of James River Coal, for the 756-acre Stacy Branch mine.

The order also barred Leeco from filling any streams at the site, which is near the Perry County town of Vicco.

The company has not started mining at the site but said it planned to begin work on a valley fill — a place to put blasted rock from the mine — as soon as possible after clearing timber, groups opposing the mine said in a court motion.

Kentuckians for the Commonwealth and the Sierra Club had sought an emergency order from Russell to block work at the mine.