The U.S. Office of Surface Mining Reclamation and Enforcement said in a Dec. 10, 2024, notice that this is a coal stockpile area at a McDowell County mine controlled by the family of Sen. Jim Justice, R-W.Va.
The West Virginia Department of Environmental Protection has suspended a mining permit for one of its outgoing boss’ coal mines after federal regulators’ threat that they would take over enforcement on the permit after finding the DEP had failed in its oversight of the mine.
But the DEP has stopped short of revoking the permit for the McDowell County surface mine controlled by Gov. Jim Justice’s Bluestone Coal Corp. — a step the federal regulators, the Office of Surface Mining Reclamation and Enforcement, indicated was required in a notice it issued the DEP last month.
In its response to the OSMRE’s notice threatening to take over enforcement on Bluestone’s Poca No. 11 Contour Auger No. 2 Mine, the DEP in a letter dated Wednesday said it suspended the permit Monday because a Bluestone request for hearings to “show cause†why its permit shouldn’t be suspended or revoked was one day late.
But the OSMRE indicated in its notice to the DEP last month it had reason to believe the DEP violated its own regulation by not revoking the permit due to Bluestone’s failure to start abatement measures for 15 cessation orders.
The OSMRE also told the DEP it may have failed to comply with its own regulation by not promptly reviewing and acting on patterns of violations at the mine site, noting that 13 cessation orders the DEP issued since February 2024 were still unabated.
In its response Wednesday, the DEP asserted it has the discretion to determine whether to revoke or suspend a permit. The DEP noted it issued four show-cause orders to Bluestone in November and that two violation notices and two cessation orders stemming from two show-cause orders were abated and terminated on Jan. 3.
But the DEP indicated it found new patterns of violations on Jan. 2 and accordingly mailed letters for seven show-cause orders to Bluestone, giving the company 30 days to again request a hearing to show why the permit shouldn’t be suspended or revoked.
The DEP concluded it followed the necessary regulatory framework by issuing violation notices and cessation orders for the permit, which spans 579 acres in the Upper Guyandotte River watershed. Conservationists have objected to the DEP’s oversight of the mine permit given Bluestone’s long history of wide-ranging environmental violations onsite.
DEP records show Roanoke, Virginia-based Bluestone owes the DEP just over $164,000 in delinquent environmental fines in response to five violation notices and seven mine operation cessation orders issued last year for the mine.
DEP spokesman Terry Fletcher said Wednesday the DEP had not received any payments from Bluestone toward the delinquent penalties but had received $19,400 from Bluestone for administrative fees.
Neither Justice’s office nor the OSMRE responded to requests for comment Friday.
‘High time the DEP revoke it’
Conservationists have feared the Bluestone Coal Corp.’s chronic environmental violations at the mine site could cause the extinction of the Guyandotte River crayfish, an endangered species for which, along with the Big Sandy crayfish, the United States Fish and Wildlife Service designated 446 stream miles of critical habitat in West Virginia, Kentucky and Virginia in 2022.
Environmentalist groups responded to the DEP’s suspension of the Bluestone permit by urging regulators to require long-lasting reclamation on the permit.
Willie Dodson, coal impacts program manager for environmental group Appalachian Voices, said in a statement Friday the mine is “in dire need of grading, revegetation and sediment control.†Dodson said the DEP should seize the permit bond and use the bond money to employ people to employ people to reclaim the site.
November letter correspondence from the DEP to Lexon Insurance Co. identified Louisville, Ky.-based Lexon as the surety bond provider for the permit, listing two bonds totaling $504,000. The DEP correspondence informed Lexon it had issued a show-cause order for the permit.
Surety bonds represent financial guarantees mining operations will be reclaimed.
“It’s no wonder this permit is being suspended, but it’s high time the DEP revoke it outright,†Dodson said.
‘Enough is enough’
The DEP has issued Bluestone Coal Corp. 13 violation notices and 16 cessation orders for the Poca mine since the start of 2024, according to agency records.
The U.S. Office of Surface Mining Reclamation and Enforcement said in a Dec. 10, 2024, notice that this is a coal stockpile area at a McDowell County mine controlled by the family of Sen. Jim Justice, R-W.Va.
The DEP issued the orders for a wide range of violations, including expired permits, runoff from a coal stockpile area and failures in surface water and groundwater monitoring, drainage control, diversion ditch and sediment control maintenance.
The OSMRE observed in its notice to the DEP that mining activity on the permit site has been “in direct proximity to Pinnacle Creek of the Guyandotte River†and that the creek contains the endangered Guyandotte River crayfish.
The OSMRE said a federal inspection of the surface mining operation would be conducted with “appropriate enforcement action†to be taken as federally required unless the state took “appropriate action†to ensure the violations are corrected.
The OSMRE told the Gazette-Mail last week it wouldn’t “speculate on the outcome or future adjudication†before it has a complete record on the case, including the DEP’s response.
The DEP issued Bluestone demands for payment of delinquent civil penalties totaling just over $164,000 on Dec. 26, telling Bluestone it couldn’t issue any permit or permit revisions to the company as long as any civil penalty remains delinquent.
After Justice’s second and final term as governor expires Monday, he will take the U.S. Senate seat vacated by former Sen. Joe Manchin, I-W.Va. Gov.-elect Patrick Morrisey has said he will retain Harold Ward as DEP secretary. Justice appointed Ward to that role in January 2021. Ward previously oversaw the agency’s mining regulatory program as its director of the Division of Mining and Reclamation.
“Enough is enough: a mine owned by former governor and now Sen. Jim Justice’s family cannot be allowed to perpetually flout environmental standards,†Andrew Young, chair of the West Virginia Highlands Conservancy’s extractive industries committee, said in a statement. “True reclamation can create lasting jobs and genuinely strengthen our communities — far more than the short-term gains of a coal baron ever will.â€
