For Immediate Release – May 6,
2009
Contacts:
Oliver
Bernstein, Sierra Club, 512.477.2152
Landmark
Tennessee , Kentucky
Settlements a “Double Victory” for
Appalachia
Unpermitted Mountaintop
Removal Coal Mining Violations Point to Widespread Unlawful Stream
Destruction
TECO Coal and Appolo Fuels to
Pay for Illegal Mining
Eastern
Tennessee & Eastern
Kentucky – Sierra Club,
Kentuckians For The Commonwealth (KFTC), Save Our Cumberland Mountains (SOCM)
and Tennessee Clean Water Network (TCWN) today announced two settlements over
separate legal claims against coal companies that operated mountaintop removal
coal mines without permits. Appolo Fuels, Inc. will pay for having destroyed
streams at its Jellico mine site in
Claiborne County ,
Tennessee . TECO Coal and subsidiary Clintwood
Elkhorn will pay for its illegal coal mining practices in
Pike County ,
Kentucky .
Mining companies’ flagrant disregard for
the Clean Water Act permitting process, designed to protect the health and
safety of waterways and communities, is a problem across
Appalachia . The legal actions against Appolo and TECO are
part of a larger effort to stop illegal mining throughout
Appalachia . The groups will continue to push for increased
public involvement and a more open permitting process to prevent future illegal
mining.
“These settlement agreements send a message to coal
companies that they will not get away with illegal mining,” said Mary Anne Hitt,
Deputy Director of the Sierra Club’s Beyond Coal Campaign. “This taste of
justice for Appalachians should help prevent
similar destruction elsewhere in the region.”
TENNESSEE
In
the Tennessee settlement, Appolo Fuels, Inc.
will pay approximately $120,000 to the
Tennessee
Parks
and Greenways Foundation to protect land in the eastern part of the
state. The payment comes in exchange for a
commitment from SOCM, TCWN and the Sierra Club to drop their claims against
Appolo for the company’s illegal filling of streams in conjunction with the
mine. The groups had notified Appolo in June 2008 of their intention to sue over
the company’s destruction of streams at its Jellico mine site in
Claiborne County ,
Tennessee
without the permits required by law.
“We
couldn't be happier,” said Cathie Bird of SOCM. “
Claiborne
County has been monumentally wrecked by
many years of surface mining, and this settlement may help get a little piece of
it back.”
Officials with the Army Corps of Engineers
had earlier confirmed to the coalition that Appolo has been operating outside
the law, dumping mining waste into streams, constructing sediment holding ponds
in streams, and mining through streams at the Jellico mine site. According to
the Tennessee Department of Environment and Conservation, Appolo illegally
disturbed twenty streams at Jellico mine.
“The
Tennessee Clean Water Network is pleased with the cooperation of Appolo Fuels in
redressing their violations of the Clean Water Act and excited at the
opportunity to participate in the protection of water resources in northeastern
Tennessee,” said Axel Ringe of the Sierra Club Tennessee Chapter and
TCWN.
KENTUCKY
In
the Kentucky
settlement, Clintwood Elkhorn (a TECO Coal subsidiary) will pay approximately
$250,000 to the Kentucky Fish and Wildlife Foundation for stream restoration
activities in the Levisa Fork watershed.
The payment comes in exchange for a
commitment from KFTC and the Sierra Club to drop their September 2008 lawsuit
against Clintwood Elkhorn for illegal coal mining practices in
Pike
County .
“It's a shame that the state couldn't enforce the law
and keep TECO from further destroying our land and steams,” said Doug Justice, a
resident of Island Creek in
Pike
County . “If only the state would do their
job we wouldn't be in this mess.”
The lawsuit that gave rise to this
settlement claimed that Clintwood Elkhorn dumped rocks, dirt and other mining
waste into important headwater streams in the Millers Creek watershed without
the permits required by law for such dumping. The EPA has 45 days from today to
review the proposed settlement.
Mountaintop removal mining is a destructive form of coal
mining that has already contaminated or destroyed nearly 2,000 miles of streams.
The mining poisons drinking water, lays waste to wildlife habitat, increases the
risk of flooding and wipes out entire communities. With explosives and
bulldozers standing by across Appalachia , it
will take tough enforcement and more rule changes and legislation to end
mountaintop removal coal mining.
The
Tennessee
groups are represented by Joe Lovett with the Appalachian Center for the Economy
and the Environment and attorney Mary Eugenia Lewis.
The
Kentucky groups are represented by Lovett and
by attorney W. H. Graddy.
# # #
________________________________________
Oliver
Bernstein
Sierra Club
Deputy Press Secretary
1202 San Antonio
St.
Austin, Texas 78701
Phone: 512.477.2152
Fax:
512.477.8526
Cell: 512.289.8618
Email:
Oliver.Bernstein@sierraclub.org
www.sierraclub.org