By Mike Tony
Charleston Gazette-Mail
The West Virginia Department of Environmental Protection is telling the feds to back off in their oversight of mine permits with long histories of environmental violations charged to and delinquent fines unpaid by operators under two of the region’s most prominent mine owners.
It’s a familiar stance from the DEP, which has had success before in doing what it’s trying to do now — get the federal Office of Surface Mining and Reclamation Enforcement to back down from a threat to take over enforcement of a troubled mine permit.
The DEP on Friday told the federal Office of Surface Mining Reclamation and Enforcement it has over reached in its oversight of Milton, Cabell County-based Lexington Coal Co. LLC’s Crescent #2 Surface Mine in the Coal River watershed in Boone County.
The OSMRE had issued a notice in October to the DEP threatening to take over enforcement of the mine permit after the federal agency found the DEP may have failed to enforce its own regulations in its oversight of the permit. That OSMRE notice followed a July complaint from Raleigh County-based environmentalist group Coal River Mountain Watch.
Lexington Coal Co. owed just over $4.18 million in delinquent civil penalties to the DEP as of last month, according to DEP Chief Communications officer Terry Fletcher.
See the rest of the story at the Charleston Gazette-Mail