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Sunday, January 08, 2012
Environment - "Is Bear Run coal mine putting Hoosiers at risk?"
A very long and interesting story today by Heather Gillers, on the Sunday Indianapolis Star front page and continuing on to a full inside page.
The gist is that the State of Indiana has elected to regulate water discharges from coal mines, no matter what size, via "general permits" (permits by rule) rather than by individual permits tailored to the specific mine, and that Peabody's Bear Run, which will become the largest mine in the Eastern United States, will be subject only to the same general permit requirements as the smallest Indiana mine. A sidebar to the printed Star story lays out the how general permits and individual permits differ. Unfortunately, it is not part of the online story.
ILB: The rule currently covering "Facilities Engaged in Mining of Coal, Coal Processing, and Reclamation Activities," is 327 IAC 15-7, part of the NPDES General Permit Rule Program.
I've attempted to research the history of this rule this afternoon. Indiana's rules are not available except online, and unfortunately the server (although oddly not that for the rest of state government) is currently "temporarily unavailable" and has been all afternoon. This means ALL Indiana's rules, which form a large part of Indiana's law - tax rules, fire marshal rules, and in fact the administrative rules of every state entity, are currently totally unavailable. (The ILB has frequently expressed concerns about this vulnerability.)
Also important but not mentioned in the story is the fact that IDEM has proposed a rulemaking to make significant changes in the NPDES permit by general permit/rule program. LSA #10-659, a First Notice, lays out the proposal. Unfortunately, I am unable to research the status of this proposal, again because the site is down. (Here is a version from the Google archive.)
Interestingly, one large law firm has posted an alert about this proposed rulemaking. Dated Nov. 3, 2010, it is headed "Indiana Coal Mines Beware: IDEM Begins NDPES General Permit Revisions."
Posted by Marcia Oddi on January 8, 2012 03:14 PM
Posted to Environment | Indiana Government