The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency has set the date for its public hearing on the possible veto of the largest mountaintop removal permit in West Virginia history.
EPA officials will hold the hearing on Arch Coal’s Spruce Mine at 7 p.m. May 18 at the Charleston Civic Center. There’s more information on the hearing available here.
The agency said:
Registering ahead of time is recommended for everyone , but especially for those planning to make oral comments, due to time and room capacity limitations. Oral statements will be limited to two minutes per person. The Presiding Officer will establish other reasonable limits on the nature and length of time for oral presentation. There will be no cross examination of any hearing participant. The Presiding Officer may make appropriate inquiries of any such participant. Written comments will be received and will become part of the official record of the Public Hearing. You will be scheduled to speak on a first-registered, first-assigned basis. Audio-visual equipment will not be provided.
If you have special needs and require auxiliary aids and/or services to fully participate in the public hearing, or if you have other questions about the hearing, please call us at 215-814-2760. If you have questions about registering for the public hearing, please call 877-368-3552.
Registration for those wishing to speak starts at 5 p.m. the day of the hearing.
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Thanks for the notice.
The Spruce #1 mine is adjacent to an underground mine on Seng Camp Cr.
Since the recent cause of the Montcoal explosion is still under investigation, seismic activity cannot be ruled out MTR certainly creates enough blast force to endanger more lives underground. We do not want a repeat disaster.The Spruce #1 mine permit should be voided
One hopes that this public hearing will not turn into the fiasco that the Corps of Engineers public hearing did.
I have a feeling that the EPA will not let the meeting be run like the COE meeting.