Our blogs are written by the staff of the Center for Coalfield Justice, with an occasional guest post. The most recent post appears on top, and others show up below in order of publishing date. You can receive the blogs in your inbox by signing up for our mailing list. Once per month we publish a newsletter, which contains most of the blog posts.
What will Senate Bill 624 Change?
Senator Joe Scarnati and Senator Gene Yaw introduced Senate Bill No. 624 (SB 624) last month, and it is now before the Environmental Resources and Energy Committee. SB 624 proposes amendments to the Bituminous Mine Subsidence and Land Conservation Act (commonly referred to as Act 54 or the Mine Subsidence Act). Senator Scarnati’s Chief Counsel,…
Pennsylvanians Respond to EPA Administrator Scott Pruitt’s Visit to Greene County Mine
Following U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) Administrator Scott Pruitt’s visit to a local coal mine, the Center for Coalfield Justice and Sierra Club Beyond Coal hosted a press conference where Pennsylvanians gathered to criticize Pruitt’s efforts to put polluter profits ahead of communities health and environment. Speakers criticized Administrator Pruitt and his “back-to-basics” plan for…
PA DEP Environmental Justice Listening Tour: A Guide to Current EJ Rules and Potential Changes
by Kirk Jalbert, Manager of Community-Based Research & Engagement, Fractracker Alliance
and Veronica Coptis, Executive Director
The Pennsylvania Department of Environmental Protection (DEP) will be hosting a nine-stop “listening tour” to hear residents’ perspectives on environmental justice (EJ). These sessions begin in the western part of the state on April 12th and 13th. The dates and locations of these meetings can be found here. The DEP will also be accepting written comments, which can be either mailed or emailed to DEP-OEJ@pa.gov.
The EJ listening tour follows on the heels of events in May 2016, when environmental advocacy groups questioned the well pad siting practices oil and gas drilling company Range Resources, causing the DEP to announce it would revisit its EJ policies. Such changes would include reassessing how EJ zones are designated and what kinds of development triggers additional scrutiny by the DEP’s Office of Environmental Justice. We wrote about this story, and detailed how present EJ rules fail to account for oil and gas development in June 2016.
Environmental Hearing Board Protects Kent Run in Ryerson Station State Park
Today, the Environmental Hearing Board issued CCJ and Sierra Club’s petition for supersedeas to protect Kent Run in Ryerson Station State Park from mining. Read our press statement below: Community Groups Praise Environmental Hearing Board for Protecting Ryerson Station State Park The Pennsylvania Environmental Hearing Board (EHB) has forbidden Consol Pennsylvania Coal Company (Consol) from…
We Had a Court Hearing on Mining in Ryerson: Here’s What Happened
Chances are if you’re reading this message, you already know that the Center for Coalfield Justice and the Sierra Club have been fighting for Ryerson Station State Park in front of the Environmental Hearing Board for many years now. After with the loss of Duke Lake in 2005, we have taken action time and time again to prevent Consol from destroying Ryerson.
We’re Back in Court to Defend Ryerson
For years, we have been fighting side by side with the Sierra Club against Consol’s plans to illegally mine coal from underneath Ryerson Station State Park. There was a three week trial over the summer about this issue; ultimately deciding whether the state-permitted plan to destroy streams and “rebuild” them later was consistent with the…
Community Groups File Appeal of Mine Threatening State Park
The Sierra Club and Center for Coalfield Justice (CCJ) filed an appeal of a permit issued by Pennsylvania Department of Environmental Protection (DEP) that would allow Consol Pennsylvania Coal Company (Consol) to mine underneath Ryerson Station State Park, damaging the streams that flow through the area. The groups are asking the Environmental Hearing Board (EHB) to halt mining in the park while the appeal is being considered. The appeal comes after the DEP issued a permit to Consol last week allowing the company to perform extensive and destructive longwall mining beneath the surface of two streams – Polen Run and Kent Run – portions of which are within the Park. The permit was issued despite the fact that the application filed by Consol predicts significant damage, notably subsidence and flow loss, to these streams. Since Consol’s destruction of Duke Lake via mining activity nearly ten years ago conservationists argue these two streams are some of the most important remaining water features and fishing spots in the park.
Case Update on our Fight for Ryerson Station State Park
Starting in 2014, we partnered with the Sierra Club to bring an appeal to a permit that authorized longwall coal mining that predicted severe stream impacts in and around Ryerson Station State Park in Greene County. At the heart of the appeal is whether Consol’s right to longwall mine trumps the protections set forth in the Clean Streams Law, the Department’s mining regulations, and Article 1, Section 27 of the Pennsylvania Constitution.