Less Support for Communities with Mine Problems

In February, the Trump administration issued a regulation to weaken the Ten Day Notice process that helps community members call in federal enforcement when state regulators don’t do a good job policing environmental problems at coal mines

Created by the 1977 surface mining law, the Ten Day Notice process gives state regulators 10 days to explain their plans to correct a problem citizens have reported at a mine before federal agencies get involved.

Community members have repeatedly used the process to force action when state agencies have ignored problems at mines — erosion, landslide risks, drinking water contamination and more. The new regulation would take power away from coal mining communities by establishing an opaque process that allows federal regulators to indefinitely delay issuing a Ten Day Notice. It would subject some complaints to a different, less-urgent bureaucratic review that can postpone action and allow ongoing harms to go unchecked.

In April, Citizens Coal Council, Sierra Club and Appalachian Voices sued to stop this attempt to weaken the process.