FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE:
Wednesday, February 19, 2025
Contact
Vernon Haltom
Executive Director, Coal River Mountain Watch
216-338-6003
vernon@crmw.net
Willie Dodson
Coal Impacts Program Manager, Appalachian Voices
276-870-5843
willie@appvoices.org
Bianca Sanchez
Associate Press Secretary, Sierra Club
bianca.sanchez@sierraclub.org
Olivia Miller
Program Director, West Virginia Highlands Conservancy
(304) 704-2997
olivia.miller@wvhighlands.org
The Plaintiffs Seek a Court Order Vacating a Previously Approved Clean Water Act Permit
NAOMA, W.Va. – Today, Coal River Mountain Watch, the West Virginia Highlands Conservancy, Appalachian Voices, and Sierra Club filed a lawsuit in the U.S. District Court for the Southern District of West Virginia challenging the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers’ decision to grant a Clean Water Act permit for four valley fills associated with the Turkeyfoot Surface Mine in Raleigh County, West Virginia. The groups are represented by lawyers from Appalachian Mountain Advocates.
Mountaintop removal mining is among the most destructive mining methods, responsible for the decimation of vibrant communities and ecosystems across Appalachia. To extract coal, mountaintop removal mining involves blowing up the tops of mountains and dumping waste, dirt, and rocks – called mining spoil – into adjacent valleys and mountain streams. The mining spoil burying these waterways, called valley fills, discharges pollution that wreaks havoc on aquatic life. Air pollutants are also discharged throughout the mining process, resulting in serious health risks to nearby communities.
Decades of staunch grassroots organizing and successful legal fights by affected communities have resulted in less frequent mountaintop removal mining proposals. However, despite the consequences, the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers continues to issue Clean Water Act permits for large-scale surface mines with numerous valley fills.
Alpha Metallurgical Resources’ 1,086-acre Turkeyfoot Surface Mine on Coal River Mountain is one such proposal. The operation’s four valley fills authorized by the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers would result in the dumping of mining spoil into more than 3.5 miles of local streams. The lawsuit filed today argues the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers acted arbitrarily and capriciously in issuing the Turkeyfoot section 404 permit.
“The Army Corps of Engineers continues to bet Appalachian communities’ health, safety, quality of life, and mountain streams on coal companies’ assurance that these valley fills will comply. Decades of pollution and mountains of evidence show this to be a losing bet,” said
Vernon Haltom, executive director of Coal River Mountain Watch.
“The valley fills approved by the Army Corps of Engineers at the Turkeyfoot mine will contaminate our water in perpetuity, irreparably impacting the lives of area residents for the worse,” said Tyler Cannon, board member of the West Virginia Highlands Conservancy. “We should not have to use the courts to ensure the Corps fulfills their obligation of protecting our water and the health of community members, but we are prepared to hold them to account for granting Alpha this approval.”
“Numerous examples from past mining have demonstrated that these valley fills consistently violate Clean Water Act standards,” said Jim Kotcon, chair of the WV Chapter of Sierra Club. “The Corps is required to protect our water and the local communities that depend on it, and they cannot simply ignore their long record of failure to do so.”
“The Army Corps was particularly egregious and ridiculous in their justification for allowing Alpha’s valley fills at the Turkeyfoot mine,” said Willie Dodson, coal impacts program manager with Appalachian Voices. “The Corps has claimed that these valley fills will somehow be totally benign, despite decades of evidence to the contrary. I cannot remember a 404 justification in the past that was so riddled with incorrect statements and unsupported assertions.”
