Sierra Club Ison Rock Ridge Injunctions Remains In Effect
Reporter: Debra McCown
Periodical: Bristol Herald Courier
Published: 8/27/2008
ABINGDON, Va. - A preliminary injunction that stopped logging on Ison Rock Ridge in Wise County remains in effect after a federal judge denied a motion by the landowner and logger to dissolve it.
“No evidence was produced to show that either MFP [Mountain Forest Products] or Penn Virginia would suffer any harm from the entry of the preliminary injunction, other than a delay in receiving any income to be earned from the sale of the timber to be harvested from the property,” according to U.S. Magistrate Judge Pamela Meade Sargent’s order that was released late Friday.
photo by Diana Parker
The case was brought by the Sierra Club and Southern Appalachian Mountain Stewards against U.S. Secretary of the Interior Dirk Kempthorne to have logging stopped on a proposed strip mine site while the mining permit is pending approval.
Landholder Penn Virginia and logging company Mountain Forest Products were added as defendants after a preliminary injunction was issued, and they sought to have the stoppage order dissolved.
Ultimately at issue in the case is whether logging on a proposed coal surface mine site is regulated as mining under the Surface Mining Control and Reclamation Act.
Sargent’s order goes on to say that the case warrants “more deliberate investigation and consideration by the court.”
The ruling gives the plaintiffs until Aug. 25 and the defendants, until Aug. 29 to file any additional information they wish the court to consider in deciding the case.
Reporter: Debra McCown
Periodical: Bristol Herald Courier
Published: 8/05/2008
ABINGDON, Va. - A federal judge issued a preliminary injunction Monday that will stop logging on Ison Rock Ridge in Wise County. The ruling came after a Friday hearing in which two environmental groups requested that the work be stopped.
“This court ruling is a huge victory for the communities of Appalachia that have suffered for far too long from the devastating effects of mountaintop removal mining,” said Aaron Isherwood, staff attorney for the Sierra Club. “If it stands, I think it will have major repercussions throughout the region.”
In the ruling, Senior U.S. District Judge Glen M. Williams ordered U.S. Secretary of the Interior Dirk Kempthorne to issue cessation orders immediately. These orders would be “… to ensure that Penn Virginia Operating Company, LLC, Mountain Forest Products, Inc., or any other entity acting in concert with them cease removing vegetation, clear-cutting timber and constructing or improving roadways or conducting any other ‘surface coal mining operations’ on the property… .”
Isherwood said the court’s decision is clear on what is currently an open question of law: whether mining companies must obtain a mining permit before clear-cutting the proposed mine site.
At issue is whether logging after applying for a mining permit is defined under mining regulations as “surface coal mining operations.” A surface coal mining permit for the site is pending for A&G Coal Corp., the same company that paid a fine and settled a large civil lawsuit after a boulder dislodged by a bulldozer killed a sleeping child in his bed in 2004.
In his ruling Judge Williams refers to the August 20, 2004 tragedy in which a boulder from an A&G strip mine rolled down a hillside and crashed into a family’s Wise County home below, killing a sleeping three-year-old child in his bedroom. During the proceedings, Gary Bowman submitted pictures of large rocks “the size of watermelons” that had fallen on to his property. Judge Williams noted that “clearly, if any such rock struck Bowman or his wife, the injury would be severe and irreparable.”
The proposed mine at Ison Rock Ridge in Wise County, Virginia, would be 1,300 acres and would fill nine lush valleys with more than 11 million cubic yards of rock and dirt. The massive mountaintop removal coal mine would also permanently destroy 14,000 feet of streams. The operation would surround the town of Derby, bringing destruction within a half mile of the historic district, eliminating the community’s tourism appeal.
Mountaintop removal mining is a destructive form of coal mining that has already buried more than 1,200 miles of streams and threatens to destroy 1.4 million acres of land by 2020. The mining poisons drinking water, lays waste to wildlife habitat, increases the risk of flooding and wipes out entire communities. For more information, visit www.sierraclub.org/MTR.
www.coalmoney.priceofoil.org/federalRaceGraph.php?zip=&type=search&x=23&y=10
On Ison Rock Ridge, the company has a contract with the landowner, Penn Virginia Operating Co., which also has contracted with Mountain Forest Products to remove timber from the site. Neither A&G nor Penn Virginia had any comment on the Ison Rock Ridge case. Karl Kindig, one of the owners of Mountain Forest Products, referred to court documents filed by the company when asked about the case.
“Mountain Forest Products has no interest in the proposed surface mine and has no involvement with A&G concerning the mine,” according to its motion to intervene - a request to be added as a defendant in the case. “Mountain Forest Products intends to cut and remove the timber whether or not a surface mine permit is issued to A&G.” According to the motion, the company has never been engaged in mining and has contracted with Penn Virginia to log about 110 acres of forestland on Ison Rock Ridge.
The next step for the Sierra Club and Appalachia, Va.-based Southern Appalachian Mountain Stewards will be to seek a permanent injunction.The two environmental groups are seeking to prevent the continuation of logging on the site until the mining permit is decided - and, ultimately, to stop the mining permit from being approved.
The mining permit is being sought for more than 1,000 acres. Penn Virginia also filed a motion asking to be added as a party in the case. According to its motion, “PVOC and its predecessors have engaged in the commercial sale of timber in Southwest Virginia for more than 100 years.”
The motion also states, “The relief sought if granted would deprive PVOC of the income from this use of its property, and affect PVOC’s ability to contract for the harvesting of its timber elsewhere on its property where future coal mining may take place.” U.S. Magistrate Judge Pamela Meade Sargent, who heard arguments in the case on Friday, recommended in her report and recommendation that the court grant the preliminary injunction.
One issue addressed in the report was the danger of large rocks that tumbled down the mountain onto an adjoining property owner’s family garden. “I find that the plaintiffs have made a clear showing of great risk of irreparable harm that is ‘neither remote nor speculative, but actual and imminent’, ” according to Sargent’s report. Also, she wrote, “I find that the plaintiffs have raised serious questions going to the merits of the case to justify more deliberate investigation.”
The injunction preserves the status quo until the court can decide whether the logging constitutes “surface coal mining operations.” Such a decision would be the first by a court on the issue. According to Williams’ order, the injunction remains in effect until further notice of the court.
Virginia District Court Judge Rules Big Coal Can’t Clearcut Mine Site without a Permit
Community members applaud decision to grant preliminary injunction
for more information, visit www.sierraclub.org/MTR
Abingdon, Virginia - In a victory for community members and for clean water, a district court judge today issued a preliminary injunction stopping a coal company from clearcutting an unpermitted mountaintop removal mining site in Southwest Virginia. Southern Appalachian Mountain Stewards (SAMS) and the Sierra Club had requested the injunction from U.S. District Judge Glen M. Williams after bulldozers started clearcutting A&G Coal’s Ison Rock Ridge coal mine site even though the mine had not received a permit.
“The judge told Big Coal today that they are not above the law and cannot start bulldozing without a permit,” said Kathy Selvage, Vice President of SAMS. ”We are tired of A&G Coal’s efforts to permanently bury our Appalachian streams and threaten our homes and neighborhoods.”
Lowell: Court Ruling: Big Coal is “not above the law”
Under the Surface Mining Control and Reclamation Act, it is illegal to conduct "surface coal mining operations" without a permit. This decision reaffirms the community’s belief that clearcutting a mine site after a mining application has been submitted qualifies as “mining operations.”
Derby, Virginia resident Gary Bowman, who lives directly below Ison Rock Ridge, said, “I am thankful that the boulders will stop falling near my house and threatening my family. Now that the clearcutting has stopped, this community will work to make sure that the mine does not receive a permit.”
Sierra Club Press Release: Big Coal Can’t Clearcut Mine Site without a Permit
Legal challenges filed against Wise County power plant