EPA holds up 79 permits for Appalachian surface minesWASHINGTON — The Environmental Protection Agency announced Friday that 79 applications for surface coal-mine permits in Kentucky, West Virginia, Ohio and Tennessee might violate the nation's Clean Water Act and require closer scrutiny.
Many of the 79 applications would remove mountaintops and dump debris in valley streams.
The EPA's action was an abrupt shift from the last big batch of surface mining permits that it's considered during the Obama administration. In May, the agency said it had no concerns with 42 of 48 permits, and blocked six.
The latest decision is in line with the Obama administration's call in June for a closer review of surface mining in Appalachia. Final decisions by the EPA in the 79 cases are weeks or months away. The agency said in a report that the review doesn't mean that the permits may not be authorized later.
After another two weeks...
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