ICG Says Lawsuit Over Valley Fill Permit Settled

TIM HUBER

CHARLESTON, W.Va. (AP) — International Coal Group said Monday it has settled a lawsuit filed by two environmental groups challenging a federal water quality permit for an Appalachian surface mine.

The deal struck with the Sierra Club and Kentucky Waterways Alliance allows the filling of parts of four valleys with excess rock and other material at its Thunder Ridge mine in eastern Kentucky, Scott Depot-based ICG said.

It also marks a bit of a milestone in the bitter fight over mountaintop removal mining. While highly efficient, the practice is decried by environmental groups as devastating to the environment and Appalachian culture.

Among them is the Sierra Club, which has pushed the President Barack Obama's administration to ban the practice. That hasn't happened yet, though the Environmental Protection Agency is holding up 79 surface and underground mining permits for greater scrutiny and is trying to revoke the permit for one of the region's largest surface mines.

Sierra Club spokesman Oliver Bernstein called the settlement a victory.

"We feel like we achieved the best possible result given the circumstances, and we are pleased that our challenge to the Army Corps permit has led to a reduction in the number of valleys that will be filled with mining waste," Bernstein said in an e-mail. "Today's settlement reinforces the importance of federal action to end mountaintop removal coal mining, the sooner the better."