A federal judge has put a stop to a controversial coal mining practice in West Virginia, ruling that it breaks the law. Federal Judge Robert C. Chambers issued a temporary restraining order and a preliminary injunction against valley fills at the Callisto Mine in Boone County, West Virginia. The ruling blocked the permanent burial of 5,750 feet of streams and tributaries, including Roach Branch, Dry Branch, and Lem White Branch of Pond Fork.
Judge Chambers found that the permits were arbitrary, capricious, and contrary to law. He ruled they didn’t balance economic and environmental interests as required by the Clean Water Act. The U.S. District Court for the Southern District of West Virginia blocked new valley fill activities while the full legal challenge played out.
The case was brought by the Ohio Valley Environmental Coalition, Coal River Mountain Watch, and the West Virginia Highlands Conservancy. The environmental group Earthjustice represented them in court.
In a separate but related ruling, Judge Chambers also found that the Army Corps of Engineers had illegally issued four valley fill permits to Massey Energy. Those permits would’ve buried roughly 12 miles of streams and stripped an estimated 3,800 acres of land. The judge cited alarming cumulative stream loss and dramatic environmental consequences from mountaintop removal mining. That ruling cited violations of both the Clean Water Act and the National Environmental Policy Act.
Valley fills happen when mining companies dump rock and dirt removed from mountaintops into nearby valleys. Critics say this destroys stream water quality, aquatic habitats, and wildlife. A single valley fill can reportedly reach over a mile long and hold as much as 250 million cubic yards of excess spoil displaced during the mining process. Across West Virginia, mountaintop removal has resulted in the burial of approximately 1,200 miles of streams and the destruction of an estimated 387,000 acres of forests and mountains.
The coal industry pushed back, and legal challenges to Judge Chambers’ rulings continued through the appellate courts, impacting Massey Energy operations and the broader permitting process for mountaintop removal mines in the region.
Despite those setbacks, environmental advocates continued to press their case. The legal battles over mountaintop removal mining have continued to shape how the law’s applied.
References
- https://earthjustice.org/press/2007/judge-tells-big-coal-stop-burying-appalachian-streams
- https://www.everycrsreport.com/reports/RS21421.html
- https://www.gem.wiki/Mountaintop_removal
- https://www.latimes.com/politics/la-xpm-2013-apr-23-la-pn-court-epa-mountaintop-removal-regulation-20130423-story.html
- https://crmw.net
