HUNTINGTON —Three environmental organizations have filed a lawsuit against West Virginia Department of Environmental Protection (WVDEP) Secretary Austin Caperton alleging WVDEP must continue putting money toward a fund that helps clean up abandoned mines.
Ohio Valley Environmental Coalition, West Virginia Highlands Conservancy and Sierra Club claim WVDEP has failed to comply with federal reporting requirements involving the Special Reclamation Fund.
Karan Ireland, a senior campaign representative for the West Virginia chapter of the Sierra Club, said that the lawsuit ensures the state and federal agencies will no longer deny the existence of the crisis.
"As the coal industry continues to decline, West Virginians and people in communities across the country are caught in a crisis not of their own making," Ireland said in a statement. "The WVDEP has failed to properly manage its reclamation program, which has led to a dire situation: one in which there is not enough money to clean up mines abandoned by their insolvent operators."
The organizations claim that WVDEP failed to meet its obligations under federal law when reporting to the Office of Surface Mining Reclamation and Enforcement (OSMRE) about the fund being dramatically underfunded. They claim the fund can't even carry out its purpose of covering the costs fo coal mine reclamation.
In March, WVDEP filed an emergency motion to force ERP Environmental Fund into receivership and an order was issued by Kanawha Circuit Court to temporarily appoint a special receiver. There are also other mine operators in the state that are at risk of collapse, which would increase the burden on the fund, the complaint states.
Vivian Stockman, executive director of the Ohio Valley Environmental Coalition, said that the coal industry has never cared about cleaning up after itself.
"From the get-go, the coal industry hasn’t cared about cleaning up its huge, toxic messes, and the WVDEP has enabled that behavior by pretending that the special reclamation fund would work to do what the industry will not," Stockman said in a statement. "That we have to sue WVDEP to force it to come up with a plan that might really protect both communities near coal operations and the environment is indicative of how subservient the agency is to the industry."
The plaintiffs claim WVDEP failed to perform its duties in notifying OSMRE of significant events that affect the fund.
West Virginia Highlands Conservancy Extractive Industries Committee Chair Cindy Rank said its time for WVDEP and OSMRE needed to do better.
“For years WVDEP has tinkered with its bonding program but minor changes along the way have only created a false sense of security," Rank said in a statement. "OSMRE for its part has more or less acceded to inadequate financial assessments by WVDEP. It’s time for both agencies to stop fiddling around. WVDEP has finally admitted to how deep the hole is, now it must honestly report to OSMRE which in turn must require REAL change which is both strong and effective."
The plaintiffs are seeking an order to declare WVDEP failed to perform its duties and to order WVDEP to implement, administer, maintain and enforce the approved state program concerning bonding of coal mines. The groups are represented by J. Michael Becher and Derek Teaney of Appalachian Mountain Advocates in Lewisburg.
The WVDEP declined to comment.
U.S. District Court for the Southern District of West Virginia case number: 3:20-cv-00470