Environmental attorney Sanders says Secretary Peters proves that “coal is king” in Commonwealth of Kentucky by vacating 96 page opinion by Hearing Officer Blanton.

Kentucky EEPC Secretary, Len Peters, issued an order allowing Cambrian Coal  to resume mining despite an administrative law judge’s ruling that the mining would likely further damage Kentucky waterways. Peters’ six-page order overturned Administrative Law Judge Steve Blanton’s 96-page finding issued September 30, 2010.  Peters’ decision will likely be challenged in the Franklin Circuit Court. 

Hearing Officer Blanton wrote that the deficiencies in the permit were “extremely environmentally troubling because the watersheds receiving the discharges here are already impaired waters and pollutants from surface coal mining operations in the impact area are the cause of that impairment.”   In May, Kentucky Friends for the Commonwealth and the Sierra Club challenged a 792-acre mining permit granted in April to Cambrian Coal that allows the company to discharge mining waste into tributaries of Elkhorn Creek, Marrowbone Creek and Pond Creek, all of which are tributaries of Russell Fork.

Coal is black gold in eastern Kentucky, and money talks in the state, especially in Frankfort.  Tear down that mountain and push that overburden into that water gulley!