The West Virginia Department of Environmental Protection granted ‘advanced approval’ to two mining companies to take over South Fork Coal Company operations; conservation groups are threatening to sue

Two companies have taken over South Fork Coal Company’s mining operations near the Monongahela National Forest — including the use of an illegal coal haul road that cuts through the public forest, drawing the threat of a lawsuit from conservation groups.

Last month, the West Virginia Department of Environmental Protection gave “advanced approval” to Clearco Processing Corporation and Aurevo Resources Inc. to operate a 3,600-acre complex of surface mines, a deep mine, a coal processing plant and coal haul roads even before the companies had satisfied the requirements for transferring permits for these operations from South Fork Coal Company, which declared bankruptcy last year.

After being informed of a new coal company in the national forest by local residents and visitors to the Mon, a coalition of conservation groups, represented by attorneys with Appalachian Mountain Advocates, sent a Notice of Intent to Sue letter to Clearco — the company now operating “haulroad #2” through the national forest — on June 10. Conservation groups also filed administrative complaints with DEP and the federal Office of Surface Mining Reclamation and Enforcement, objecting to the advanced approval of the permit transfers that effectively made Clearco and Aurevo the owners and operators of the mining complex. 

Clearco does not have the required road-use permit from the U.S. Forest Service to use the coal haul road that runs through the Mon. Not only that, but the company would have to show that it had “valid existing rights” to use that road before implementation of the 1977 Surface Mining Control and Reclamation Act and designation of the affected land as part of the national forest.

James Woods Jr. — who pleaded guilty in 2021 to federal fraud charges — incorporated both Clearco and Aurevo in late 2025, according to West Virginia Secretary of State records. The Monongahela National Forest was designated by presidential proclamation in 1920. 

“The West Virginia DEP seems determined to allow Clearco to haul coal through the Mon despite the legal process,” said Bill Price, chairperson of the West Virginia Chapter of the Sierra Club.

“Clearco’s operations threaten protected public lands,” said Olivia Miller, interim executive director of the West Virginia Highlands Conservancy. “This feels like déjà vu after two years of fighting over the same haul road with a different coal company. Clearco is being even more flagrant in its law-breaking. It has literally zero of the state and federal permits that are necessary to operate within the national forest. There must be accountability.”

In addition to Clearco and Aurevo lacking the proper authorizations to operate within the national forest, conservationists also object to continued mining in the Cherry River watershed due to impacts to endangered species. Since 2020, coal companies have been able to bypass normal Endangered Species Act compliance due to a special arrangement between the Fish and Wildlife Service and Office of Surface Mining Reclamation and Enforcement. 

On May 29, a federal court determined that that arrangement was illegal.. As a result, coal companies in states like West Virginia where the state has assumed primary responsibility for coal mine permitting must now undergo consultation with the Fish and Wildlife Service, and obtain an incidental take permit – permission to harm or kill endangered species – from the Fish and Wildlife Service before mining and related activity can commence. The South Fork of Cherry River is home to the endangered candy darter, and the waterway is federally protected as critical habitat for the species.

“The law is clear,” said Willie Dodson, coal impacts program manager at Appalachian Voices. “Clearco cannot operate within the Mon.”

On June 15, the DEP responded to conservationists’ complaint, affirming DEP’s decision to grant advanced approval for the transfer of permits to Clearco and Aurevo. As of the publication of this blog, OSMRE is still investigating the situation.