A number of
news sources are reporting today that an Interior Department Administrative Law Judge ruled the Office of Surface Mining cannot allow Peabody Western Coal Co. to operate two coal mines near Kayenta under a single federal permit. [
below, index map of mines and plants. Credit, OSMRE EIS]
The Sierra Club and others had filed suit as part of efforts to halt coal mining and coal-fired power plants in the region.
The
Arizona Daily Sun reports that the Kayenta and Black Mesa mines opened in the 1970s and the Kayenta provide 8.5 million tons of coal annually to the Navajo Generating Station in Page.
The Black Mesa mine supplied coal to a power plant in Henderson Nevada that shut down in 2005 over costs of implementing tighter emissions controls and concerns about continuity of fuel supply, and as a result is now shut down.
“The decision essentially sends the [environmental impact statement] process back to OSM for a do-over” said Nada Talayumptewa, chairwoman of the Hopi Tribal Council’s Water and Energy Team. “Mining will continue under the existing permit that covers the Kayenta mine and OSM will now have an opportunity to go back and re-visit the question of how mining operations at both the Black Mesa and Kayenta mines should be permitted in the future.”
ReplyDelete--Tina May
Public Information Officer
The Hopi Tribe