Bluefield Daily Telegraph, Bluefield, WV

West Virginia State News

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March 23, 2012

Judge: EPA veto of W.Va. mine permit overreached

Associated Press

MORGANTOWN (AP) — A federal judge says the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency exceeded its authority in revoking permits for what could now become West Virginia’s largest mountaintop removal mine.

In a ruling Friday, U.S. District Judge Amy Berman Jackson in Washington, D.C., ruled in favor of St. Louis-based Arch.

She declares a U.S. Army Corps of Engineers water pollution permit for the Spruce No. 1 mine in Logan County is “valid and in full force.”

Arch spokeswoman Kim Link says the company is pleased with the decision.

The EPA vetoed the corps’ permit for the mine in January 2011, saying it would cause irreparable damage to the environment.

The move enraged both the coal industry and West Virginia politicians, several of whom have since introduced bills to try rein in the EPA.

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