Jan 24 - McClatchy-Tribune Regional News - Spencer Hunt The Columbus Dispatch, Ohio


When one of Ohio's largest coal-mining companies asked if it could turn a Belmont County stream into a 2-billion-gallon lagoon for toxic waste, state and federal officials said no.

But faced with the fear that Ohio's two largest mines would close, putting about 1,000 miners out of work, those same state officials offered to help the coal company find a better way to handle the waste.

Nearly a year later, Murray Energy Corp.'s new disposal plan looks a lot like its first proposal.

Applications that the company filed with the Ohio Environmental Protection Agency and the Army Corps of Engineers in December propose a lagoon at Casey Run that officials say is roughly the same size as the one they rejected in 2008.

 Murray Energy, based in Pepper Pike outside Cleveland, needs state and federal approval before work can start.

Although the company and state officials discussed as many as 14 alternative plans, Murray Energy insists that the Casey Run lagoon is the only viable option.

"There are no practical or feasible stand-alone alternatives to the Casey Run impoundment," the company wrote in a Sept. 10 report to state and federal agencies.

The company said it would install a plastic liner to help protect groundwater from slurry, which is waste created by washing coal.

The Ohio EPA and the Corps of Engineers have yet to respond.

In cases such as this, the federal government usually waits for the state to weigh in before giving an opinion. This time, however, the U.S. EPA wrote this month to the Corps of Engineers to say a slurry lagoon remains a threat to Captina Creek, which is downstream and is home to the endangered eastern hellbender salamander.

Environmental advocates agree.

"It was unacceptable in 2008. It should be unacceptable now," said Trent Dougherty, an attorney for the Ohio Environmental Council.

Murray Energy declined to comment. The company has said it needs a new way to dispose of slurry at its Powhatan No. 6 mine in Belmont County and its Century mine in Monroe County.

The two underground mines produce as much as 16 million tons of coal each year, more than half the total pulled out of all Ohio mines.

The company wants to use Casey Run as a replacement for a nearly full lagoon it has used since the 1970s. The state rejected that plan in April 2008 and formed a task force of state and company officials to look for alternative disposal methods.

The group examined options such as using industrial presses to squeeze clean water from the waste coal and injecting the slurry into abandoned and unused sections of underground mines. The group also examined 203 nearby sites that could hold slurry lagoons.

The task force's Sept. 10 report, filed by the company and officials with the state EPA and the Ohio Department of Natural Resources, said using presses would not work. The company plans to inject some slurry underground but said the method won't be enough to handle all the waste.

The task force also identified 15 sites that could be used to store slurry. Craig Butler, chief of the Ohio EPA's Southeast District Office, said Murray Energy's evaluation of those sites might influence the state's decision. Butler said the state's job ended at identifying sites that might work, and it was up to Murray Energy to do any further analysis.

The Corps of Engineers' approval is needed before the lagoon can be built. Although the state and federal reviews can happen simultaneously, Butler said the feds typically wait for the state to complete its work before starting their own.

The U.S. EPA can demand additional review before the corps can sign off on a project, said Tinka Hyde, the EPA's water-division director in Chicago.

An EPA objection can delay federal approval for months. Hyde said the company must show how it will prevent environmental damage to Captina Creek and offset the loss of Casey Run, which the U.S. EPA considers a "high quality" stream.

"At this point, we think there are problems moving forward," Hyde said.

shunt@dispatch.com

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