7. COAL: Settlment allows Ky. mine expansion to proceed (11/17/2009)

Patrick Reis, E&E reporter

A coal company can expand a south-central Kentucky mine after reaching a legal settlement yesterday with environmental groups.

The Sierra Club and Kentucky Waterways Alliance agreed to drop their challenge to a fourth valley fill at the International Coal Group's
Thunder Ridge Mine in exchange for a company pledge to donate $50,000 to restore a stream and plant hardwood trees on previously mined land.

The settlement ends years of legal maneuvers by environmental groups trying to stop the mine expansion.

The groups sued the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers in December 2007 to overturn the mine's Clean Water Act permit and asked a judge for an injunction to halt development at Thunder Ridge.

The injunction request was denied and work began on two of the four valley fills, but after losing court battles over permits elsewhere, the Army Corps suspended the Thunder Ridge permit within a month of the environmental suit.

The corps modified the permit, reducing the number of valley fills from five to four, and reopened mining in March of this year.

The environmental groups maintained their legal challenge after the permit was reinstated, but they opted to settle out of court because much of the mine's environmental damage had already been done, said Oliver Bernstein, Sierra Club spokesman.

"The settlement was really about what could be done to make a bad situation less bad," Bernstein said. "I think we got the most that we could given the circumstances."

International Coal Group hailed the settlement. "We are pleased to have successfully resolved the legal issues over the Corps' ... permit for Thunder Ridge," company President and CEO Ben Hatfield said in a statement. "We look forward to continue working with the Corps to improve the process for reviewing and approving permit applications for both surface and deep mining in a timely manner."