The EPA announced today that it would review permits for mountaintop mining in two locations, based on concerns over water pollution. The projects to be evaluated are the Central Appalachia Mining’s Big Branch project in Pike County, Kentucky and the Highland Mining Company’s Reylas mine in Logan County, West Virginia. Under the Clean Water Act, the EPA is able to review Army Corps of Engineers proposals for mining projects.

Mountaintop removal mining is a type of coal mining in which land is removed in order to expose the coal seams underneath. The land is then dumped into the surrounding valley, where it is expected it pollutes and damages waterways. The EPA finds the Army Corps’ plans for regulating environmental impacts of the two projects unsatisfactory and hopes to meet with them to discuss this.

This action is thought to be a great step forward in the regulation of environmentally damaging mining practices. Ed Hopkins, the environmental quality program director for the Sierra Club stated, ”This is an extremely significant action to put a stop to the devastating practice of mountaintop removal. This isn’t just one permit that the EPA is looking at; this is an entire industry practice.”

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