West Virginia DEP Suspends Bluestone Coal’s Mining Permit for Poca Surface Mine
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
January 10, 2025
Contact:
Olivia Miller, Program Director, West Virginia Highlands Conservancy, (304) 704-2997, olivia.miller@wvhighlands.org
Willie Dodson, Coal Impacts Program Manager, Appalachian Voices, (276) 870-5843, willie@appvoices.org
CHARLESTON, W.Va. — The West Virginia Department of Environmental Protection has suspended the mining permit for Bluestone Coal Corporation’s Poca surface mine in Wyoming County. The nearly 600-acre mountaintop removal coal mine is operated by the family of West Virginia Sen. Jim Justice. The move falls short of a December directive from the federal Office of Surface Mining Reclamation and Enforcement calling on the DEP to revoke the permit outright.
In the past 12 months, the DEP has issued 13 notices of violation and 16 cessation orders to the Poca mine for failures in reclamation, sediment and runoff control, unlawfully dumping dirt and rock into an ephemeral stream, and other regulatory infractions.
In February 2024, the West Virginia Highlands Conservancy and Appalachian Voices raised concerns about the company’s ongoing noncompliance and its impact on the endangered Guyandotte River crayfish, an indicator species for water quality in the region. In response, DEP informed Bluestone that it would need to address the concerns of the objecting groups before its permit could be renewed. Bluestone never contacted either group, and continued to accrue new violations on the Poca mine, resulting in the DEP holding the permit renewal in abeyance. Without an approved permit renewal, Bluestone was prohibited from removing coal from the site, but remained responsible for reclamation and cleanup.
“Enough is enough: a mine owned by former governor and now Sen. Jim Justice’s family cannot be allowed to perpetually flout environmental standards,” said Andrew Young, chair of the West Virginia Highlands Conservancy’s extractive industries committee. “True reclamation can create lasting jobs and genuinely strengthen our communities — far more than the short-term gains of a coal baron ever will.”
“This mine is in dire need of grading, revegetation and sediment control,” said Willie Dodson, Coal Impacts Program Manager for Appalachian Voices. “Jim Justice and his kids could be putting miners to work doing this reclamation, but they aren’t doing that. It’s no wonder this permit is being suspended, but it’s high time the DEP revoke it outright, seize the bond and use the bond money to employ people to reclaim the site.”
On Nov. 29, 2024, federal mine inspectors visited the Poca mine and found that the Justice company had still not addressed long-standing violations, and had even continued to mine coal in violation of the permit status. On Dec. 10, OSMRE issued a notice of imminent harm and cessation order to the DEP, highlighting Bluestone’s ongoing violations and unpermitted activity and the state’s failure to take appropriate enforcement action. The notice directed the DEP to formally identify patterns of violations at the mine and revoke the Justice company’s mining permit.
On Jan. 8, 2025, the state responded, explaining that the DEP had chosen to suspend, rather than revoke, the permit on Jan. 6 as a result of Bluestone’s failure to abate violations. The response also explained that state regulators had identified two patterns of violations on Dec. 30, 2024, and seven more on Jan. 2, 2025, and had issued “Show Cause” orders for each pattern, the final enforcement action prior to permit suspension or revocation. The state’s inspectors also found that two violations had been corrected.
Bluestone now has until Jan. 29 and Feb. 1, respectively, to appeal the seven new Show Cause orders, and it has until March 7 to appeal the current suspension.
