Coulterville residents need your support!

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• What: Illinois EPA Public Hearing on proposed NPDES Water Discharge Permit for Peabody Coulterville Mining, L.L.C.’s Gateway Mine
• Where: Sparta City Council Chambers, Sparta City Hall, 114 West Jackson Street, Sparta, Illinois 62286
• When: Wednesday, June 8, 2011 at 6:00 p.m.
• Background: Notice of Public Hearing, Draft NPDES Permit
• Contact: bperbix “at” prairierivers.org

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Peabody's Gateway Mine in Coulterville, IL

Peabody’s Gateway Mine in Coulterville is a large underground room-and-pillar mine that has been in operation since the 1980s, and a proposed expansion to the north could double coal production, with corresponding increases in coal refuse and slurry generated. Area residents are already concerned about the massive refuse disposal areas onsite – which also take on coal ash – and the negative impacts that air and water pollution from the site may have on local health and water quality.

The proposed north portal, situated adjacent to a new county nursing home, will require filling in streams and wetlands and will cause pollution to run into a tributary of Coulterville’s community drinking water reservoir. Neighbors near the existing facility are already impacted by fugitive coal dust and potential groundwater contamination. Additionally there are a number of old gob piles – coal refuse – nearby that are leaking and adding to the pollution burden on local streams.

We disagree with Illinois EPA’s decision to issue this permit because (1) there are existing pollution problems onsite that must be addressed first, (2) the new permit does not take into account the proposed expansion, (3) the permit does not guarantee that coal ash disposal at the site won’t cause air and water pollution and (4) the permit allows Gateway to pollute a freshwater lake onsite in order to dilute their waste.

Illinois EPA needs to hear from citizens in favor of protecting clean water. The public hearing is your chance to bring information to Illinois EPA’s attention and have your concerns heard. If you cannot attend the hearing you may still submit comments:

Written comments must be postmarked or e-mailed by midnight, July 8, 2011, when the hearing record closes. E-mails must specify Gateway Mine NPDES in the subject line and must be sent to: epa.publichearingcom@illinois.gov. The hearing record is a file containing the hearing transcript and written comments. Comments need not be notarized and should be sent to:

Hearing Officer Dean Studer
Illinois Environmental Protection Agency
1021 North Grand Avenue East
P. O. Box 19276
Springfield, IL 62794-9276

Phone 217-558-8280

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Specific concerns:

• This permit should not be issued as it does not address entire scope of anticipated mine operations and impacts. Peabody Coulterville Mining, LLC has filed an application with the Illinois Department of Natural Resources-Office of Mines and Minerals to nearly double their mining operation. Coal brought to the surface will be transferred to the Gateway Mine’s Central Cleaning Plant for washing, leaving behind millions of gallons of slurry with discharges to area streams. This proposed water pollutioin permit does not acknowledge the expansion and only addresses a fraction of the overall anticipated impacts from Peabody’s Gateway Mine.

• The Gateway Mine should not be allowed to expand its operations until it has corrected its ongoing permit noncompliance and addresses degradation of groundwater and fugitive coal ash dust.

• Peabody Coulterville Mining’s Gateway Mine is not in compliance with their permit for discharges of total iron, settleable solids and total suspended solids to area streams. Groundwater quality standards are not being met at monitoring wells at the Gateway Mine site and fugitive dust from the coal ash and slurry ponds are contaminating adjacent land and water.

• Illinois EPA has not adequately assessed the impacts the mine will have on water quality and wildlife in Randolph County. The draft permit does not fully address pollution impacts from increased coal ash and lime sludge disposal, expanded mining or from the expansion of onsite slurry disposal. Further, the Illinois EPA has not fully assessed the conditions and existing uses of each of the streams that will be receiving pollution from the mine site.

• Peabody proposes to remove protections afforded under the Clean Water Act for an onsite lake. The draft permit instead proposes using the lake to dilute mining pollution before discharging to area streams.

Signs of coal pollution running off of coal stockpile in Carbondale

This spring Prairie Rivers Network, along with our partners in the Heartland Coalfield Alliance, sponsored two tours of Illinois coalfields in order to explore the impacts that the entire coal life cycle has on the lands, water, health, and quality of life of communities in central and southern Illinois. Participants joined citizen advocates and water quality professionals for a first-hand look at coal waste sites, mining operations, and examples of the land and water impacts associated with coal-fired electricity. For a full description of these tours, including itineraries and maps, please read the Heartland Coalfield Alliance’s coverage of these events.

Coulterville, IL resident and farmer Mike Fullerton points out coal slurry impoundments at Gateway Mine

Industry Mine, McDonough and Schuyler Counties

Attendance was high at the Illinois Environmental Protection Agency’s public hearing April 12th on the proposed renewal of the Industry Mine’s National Pollution Discharge Elimination System (NPDES) water discharge permit. With over 40 people in attendance and more than a dozen taking the stand to provide comments, the message to the Illinois Environmental Protection Agency (IEPA) was loud and clear: don’t renew the Industry Mine’s water discharge permit!

The strip mine located southwest of the town of Industry in Schuyler and McDonough Counties has been in operation for over two decades, and has been in continuous violation of its current water permit dating back at least to 2004. With over 300 Clean Water Act Violations in the past six years, including discharges of pollution such as iron, manganese, and sulfates at levels several times higher than their permit allows, the Industry Mine’s environmental compliance record is one of the worst for coal mines in Illinois. Prairie Rivers Network and the Illinois Chapter of the Sierra Club filed suit with our partners in 2009 to stop the pollution. The case caught the attention of Attorney General Lisa Madigan, who has now taken the case against the mine to the Illinois Pollution Control Board. Prairie Rivers Network and Sierra Club are now intervening to ensure sufficient penalties for unlawful pollution of Grindstone Creek and Willow Creek.

In the 15 months since the Attorney General took on the case, the Industry Mine has continued to violate its water pollution permit. Furthermore, the new permit would allow the mine to continue its practice of dumping toxic coal ash into unlined pits at the mine – a practice that may be contributing to the groundwater pollution problems onsite that IEPA has acknowledged exist. {Continue Reading »}

View Prairie River Notes – Spring 2011 Newsletter with the following articles.

• Innovative Paths to Cleaner Water: Prairie Rivers Network Uses Clean Water Law to Help Communities Reduce Pollution
• Greetings from Glynnis
• An Open Letter to Prairie Rivers Network Staff and Members: From Member Carol Wock
• Prairie Rivers Network Supports Bill to Make Factory Farms Pay for Their Permit to Pollute
• Heartland Coalfield Alliance Unites Groups Working to Move Beyond Coal
• Prairie Rivers Network to Sue Chicago Polluter
• Grassroots Groups Fight Coal Pollution
• 2010 Annual Report

Larry Schraut, farmer, explaining his concerns about a new underground mine during our recent coal tour.

This winter’s frigid weather may have kept people indoors, but it didn’t stop citizen groups across Illinois fighting coal pollution from working hard to protect their water, land and communities.

Stand Up To Coal, Vermilion County

www.standuptocoal.org

On March 8th, 2011, farmers and rural residents from the voluntary association Stand Up To Coal took their effort to preserve clean water and prime farmland from a proposed coal mine to the Vermilion County Board.

Supporters from the area where Sunrise Coal, LLC is buying up coal leases boarded a charter bus to attend the meeting. Speakers Kevin Block and Charles Goodall detailed existing damage in other Illinois communities caused by coal mining, toxic coal slurry and coal ash waste disposal, and called on the Board to take strong action to halt threats from new coal mining to the county’s economic and natural resources. {Continue Reading »}

Click image to download flyer.

On Tuesday, April 12th the public will have an opportunity to speak out to protect clean water from coal pollution. The Illinois Environmental Protection Agency will hold a public hearing on the pending renewal of the Industry Mine’s NPDES water discharge permit. Located near Industry in McDonough and Schuyler Counties, the strip mine is one of the most polluting coal mines in the state. The Industry Mine has violated its permit over 300 times by discharging pollution (such as iron, manganese, and sulfates) at levels several times higher than allowed. {Continue Reading »}