Yet Another Legal Victory Against Army Corps of Engineers!

Judge Robert C. Chambers again ruled in our favor in the Individual Permit lawsuit we filed against the Army Corps of Engineers due to the illegal way the corps issues valley fill permits.

On June 14, 2007, Ken Ward, Jr. of the Charleston Gazette reported in "Mine Ponds Ruled Illegal":

Coal operators cannot evade the Clean Water Act by building sediment-treatment ponds just downstream from strip mine valley fills, a federal judge ruled Wednesday.

U.S. District Judge Robert C. Chambers essentially outlawed the common coal industry practice of turning small stream segments downstream from fills into waste treatment systems.

(This) ruling is the second time in three months that Chambers has dealt a major blow to the coal industry with a ruling to more strictly regulate mountaintop removal mining.

In March, Chambers blocked four corps permits for Massey Energy operations, ruling that agency officials had not fully evaluated the potential environmental damage before approving the operations. That ruling is being appealed by the coal companies involved.

The new ruling is part of the same case, a lawsuit brought against the corps by the Ohio Valley Environmental Coalition, Coal River Mountain Watch and the West Virginia Highlands Conservancy …

Joe Lovett, a lawyer for the environmental groups, praised the judge’s decision.

"The Clean Water Act has prohibited this kind of activity since it was passed," Lovett said. "The agency simply never enforced it."