U.S. District Judge Robert C. Chambers today gave the Obama administration another week to decide what it’s going to do about the largest mountaintop removal mine in West Virginia history.
Judge Chambers issued this three-page order, granting EPA a requested stay of legal proceedings on the permit until March 26 — next Friday.
The judge noted that Arch Coal’s Mingo Logan subsidiary had not formally oppose the requested stay, and the judge refused the company’s request to include language specifying that EPA will not receive additional delays unless it actually moves forward with its plans to veto the 2,300-acre permit.
However, the judge’s order did say:
The Court understands Mingo Logan’s frustration with the delay in this action. Moreover, the Court agrees with the company that, at some point in the near future, the U.S. EPA must decide whether to proceed with its § 404(c) process and, if so, that the agency must issue a public notice to that effect.
Still:
… The Court GRANTS the stay sought by the Corps, without the conditions requested by Mingo Logan, FINDING that, in the context of the multi-year permit review at issue in this litigation, and in light of the company’s repeated consent to the prior requested deadline extensions and stays, a brief extension of the existing stay is appropriate. Such a stay will allow the U.S. EPA an opportunity to complete its determination of whether and how to exercise its §404(c) authority, which, as discussed in the Court’s October 21, 2009, Order, is not only discretionary, but is also likely to affect the instant litigation.
Further, in light of the repeated and often uncontested postponements in this action, and because Mingo Logan may continue to conduct limited mining operations pursuant to the Spruce No. 1 Permit, such an extension will not result in substantial prejudice to Mingo Logan.




Tom Clarke, director of the WVDEP Division of Mining and Reclamation, has denied 17 requests from mining operations to extend the deadline for them to comply with selenium limits.
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