Jun 28 - McClatchy-Tribune Business News Formerly Knight Ridder/Tribune Business News - Mike Springston Sparta News-Plaindealer, Sparta, Ill.

Peabody Energy Corp., has filed permits to use two area holdings for storage facilities for emission control waste byproducts from the proposed Prairie State power plant in Washington County.

Beth Sutton, Peabody spokesman, said the company has filed a permit in St. Clair County to use the former Randolph Prep Plant, located on the St. Clair-Marissa county line, as the primary storage site for the emission byproducts.

A second site, Jordan Grove, would serve a dual purpose. Jordan Grove would be a small surface mining operation with a storage facility for emission control byproducts from the proposed Prairie State power plant.

The site is expected to produce approximately 100,000 tons per year.

Sutton said the Jordan Grove Mine would allow Peabody to recover reserves from its former River King No. 6 Mine.

Jordan Grove would be a surface mine operation. Sutton said with the permitting process, it would likely be three to four years before the mine opened.

While the North Randolph property would be the primary storage site for the Prairie State emission control byproducts, Sutton said the Jordan Grove site would give Peabody flexibility to store benign materials, such as gypsum.

Gypsum is used to make drywall and other materials and Sutton said Peabody hoped to market most of the byproducts.

In addition to the mining permit, Peabody has also applied with the Illinois Department of Natural Resources for a water permit for Jordan Grove.

The Jordan Grove Mine is one of two permits filed for Randolph County locations by Peabody and its holding companies.

As reported in theNews-Plaindealer, Black Beauty Coal Co., which operates the Gateway Mine, filed a permit in January with the Illinois Department of Natural Resources Office of Mines and Minerals to develop the Mary's River Mine approximately seven miles southeast of Sparta.

The permit area covers 708.7 acres on land owned by Peabody Development Land Holding, LLC, and American Land Holdings of Illinois, LLC.

Sutton said development of that surface mine is probably five years in the future.

She said the company is trying to line up contracts for the mine, which would produce an estimated one million tons of coal annually.

"This is really in a very stage of development," Sutton said. "It will take a couple of years to permit. Once that process is complete, we have the ability to proceed when contracts are in place."