Conservation groups defend in court the ability of citizens to report problems with coal mines to federal authorities

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
September 24, 2024

CONTACT
Dan Radmacher, Media Specialist, (540) 798-6683, dan@appvoices.org 

WASHINGTON, D.C. — Today, a federal judge approved a motion by conservation groups to join in the defense of a Biden administration rule that makes it easier for individuals and community organizations to report problems related to coal mining directly to federal regulators. Citizens Coal Council, Appalachian Voices, the Sierra Club and the Center for Biological Diversity, represented by Kentucky Resources Council, filed a motion on Sept. 9 to intervene in ongoing litigation brought by 14 states  against the federal Office of Surface Mining Reclamation and Enforcement challenging the rule. The states have also requested that the court enter an injunction staying the rule’s implementation during the challenge.

Under the 1977 Surface Mining Control and Reclamation Act, when OSMRE receives information from a citizen of a possible violation that is not an imminent harm situation, the state regulatory agency implementing the act in that state is given 10 days to take inspection and enforcement action to correct the violation, or must provide good cause why it didn’t do so.  If the state doesn’t act or provide good cause, OSMRE is to take necessary enforcement action to fix the violation. The Ten Day Notice Rule finalized in April 2024 reverses changes made by the Trump administration that had delayed correction of violations, and restores the requirement that all violations, even those caused by state agency failures in permitting, are to be subject to inspection and needed enforcement action.

“The Ten Day Notice process is a critical tool that allows communities impacted by coal mining pollution to secure meaningful and effective federal oversight when state regulators are unable or unwilling to enforce the law,” said Bonnie Swinford, Campaign Organizing Strategist with the Sierra Club. “Our groups are intervening to defend the Biden-Harris Administration’s rulemaking to restore important protections stripped away under the Trump Administration.”

“West Virginia regulators were granting indefinite violation extensions and failing to assess required fines or take escalated enforcement actions against chronic violators,” said Vernon Haltom, Executive Director of Coal River Mountain Watch, a member organization of the Citizens Coal Council. “Through the Ten Day Notice process, we notified the OSMRE, who forced WV to issue dozens of cessation orders, retrain inspector supervisors, assess millions in penalties, and even suspend a permit. Citizens affected by polluting coal companies should be front and center holding those companies accountable, with strong federal oversight. Without a strong Ten Day Notice rule to hold them accountable, West Virginia regulators would continue to find themselves faultless as they gaslight citizens and coddle coal companies.”

“Last year, Kentucky regulators failed to act when we provided evidence of water monitoring violations on a mountaintop removal mine in Pike County,” said Willie Dodson, Coal Impacts Program Coordinator for Appalachian Voices. “Under the Ten Day Notice rule, we brought our evidence to OSMRE, who then required Kentucky to enforce the violations we had identified. Communities rely on this rule in order to compel sorely needed federal oversight of lax state regulators.”

“Appalachia’s endangered fish, crayfish, and salamanders can’t wait any longer for the feds to start enforcing the law against coal companies that violate water quality standards on a daily basis,” said Perrin de Jong, Southeast attorney for the Center for Biological Diversity. “It’s often the community volunteers and nonprofit staff who are on the ground, documenting these violations and reporting them to the appropriate authorities for enforcement. We appreciate the court approving our intervention, because it gives the Center a chance to defend the Biden administration’s improved federal enforcement process in situations where the states refuse to enforce the law.”

“The Citizens Coal Council membership, which spans coalfield communities across the nation, strongly support the 2024 Rule that undid the damage caused by the Trump administration,” said Aimee Erickson of the Citizens Coal Council. “We will be monitoring OSMRE’s defense of the rule, and will not be deterred in our decades-long efforts to hold both the regulated and the regulators accountable in the coalfields.”

The Trump Administration rewrite of the Ten Day Notice rule, which added a lengthy pre-review process before citizens’ complaints could be evaluated, and which exempted violations caused by state regulatory failures, made it more difficult for residents of mining communities to secure timely regulatory compliance when problems occur. In response, Citizens Coal Council, Appalachian Voices and Sierra Club sued over the 2020 Rule, and stayed that lawsuit while President Biden’s OSMRE rewrote and issued the new rule restoring much of the previous language of the rule, and along with it, streamlining citizens’ ability to effectively report problems to federal regulators.

On Jun. 7, 2024, West Virginia and 13 other states sued the OSMRE, claiming that the Biden rule — essentially the same rule that had been in effect between 1977 and 2020 — imposed an undue burden on states’ ability to regulate the industry. Today’s grant of intervention  gives Citizens Coal Council, Appalachian Voices, Sierra Club and Center for Biological Diversity, and their combined memberships of nearly 720,000 individuals, a voice in the defense of this rule and a seat at the table in this case.