CHARLESTON, W.Va. — The U.S. Army Corps of Engineers suspended an expedited process for obtaining surface mining permits across much of the nation's eastern coalfields Thursday.
The decision is the latest step by the Obama administration to curb mountaintop removal coal mining. Environmental groups contend the practice of blasting away mountaintops to expose multiple coal seams causes too much damage and want it banned.
New surface coal mines in West Virginia, eastern Kentucky, Ohio, Pennsylvania, Tennessee and Virginia will no longer be able to use the expedited process to obtain permits to bury streams with excess waste, the corps said.
Instead, surface mines in those states will need individual Clean Water Act permits, which typically involve greater scrutiny and public input. The decision does not affect other major coal producing areas in the Midwest and Wyoming.
The corps decided to suspend the process in the six states because information gathered in recent years shows mountaintop mining can harm aquatic life, corps official Meg Gaffney-Smith said during a conference call with reporters.
"These activities are more appropriately evaluated through the individual permit process," she said.
The decision directly affects just five pending permit applications for mines in eastern Kentucky and northern West Virginia, though the corps did not immediately name those projects. However, the expedited process has been used heavily in the region, where surface mines produce roughly 12 percent of the nation's coal.
About 80 percent of the 1,500 permits issued through the process since 1997 have been for mines in the Appalachian region of the six states, Gaffney-Smith said.
The decision prompted criticism from the coal industry and praise from environmentalists.
"This decision takes us in the wrong direction, said Hal Quinn, chief executive of the National Mining Association. "The current backlog of coal mining permits in Appalachia clearly demonstrates the consequences of eliminating this important regulatory tool."
Sierra Club spokesman Oliver Bernstein said, "This one-size-fits-all permit was never intended to allow for such enormous environmental impacts, as seen with mountaintop removal coal mining, and we're glad to see it suspended."
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