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Coal Mine Rejected for Lila Canyon, Utah Salt LAKE CITY, Utah, December 24, 2001 (ENS) - The Utah Board of Oil, Gas and Mining has ruled that the Utah Division of Oil, Gas and Mining erred when it approved a request by UtahAmerican Energy Inc.(UEI) to mine coal at Lila Canyon, and that the coal company failed to provide adequate assurances that its mining operation would not harm the surrounding environment. Lila Canyon is a narrow, steep canyon on the western Book Cliff Range, an oasis of seeps and springs creating critical year around wildlife habitat in eastern Utah. The area of the proposed mine has been identified as having wilderness characteristics by the Bureau of Land Management and is currently listed as proposed wilderness in America's Redrock Wilderness Act. If allowed to develop, the mine would have required construction of a 4.7 mile road to the mine site. At the peak of mining operation, coal haul trucks would have taken 550 round trips daily from the mine north to a drop off point in the town of Wellington, Utah.
In a 28-page ruling issued earlier this month, the board found that on nine separate points regarding geologic and hydrologic requirements that division's action in approving the permit was "an abuse of discretion without substantial evidence in the record and is not in compliance with the procedures required by law." In addition, the board, which is strongly represented by industry, similarly ruled that the division could not have assessed the validity of the biological information submitted by UEI because the coal company failed to adequately document the creditability of the information. "Constructing a new coal mine at Lila Canyon was a poorly conceived idea from the start," said Herb McHarg, attorney for the Southern Utah Wilderness Alliance. "But the fact the Division approved the mine permit without baseline information necessary to ensure that the unique water resources, wildlife habitat, and the people of Utah would be protected was particularly upsetting, and readily apparent to the Board." On six separate occasions beginning in 1998, UEI officials sought approval to mine coal at Lila Canyon, but were rejected by the Utah Division of Oil, Gas and Mining each time. The state authorized the project on the seventh application earlier this year. Attorney David Churchill, a partner at Jenner & Block in Washington, DC who represented the Southern Utah Wilderness Alliance in the case, was delighted with the good news that the mining will not proceed. "The division has a sacred duty to protect the public and the environment against the well known adverse effects of coal mining." Copyright Environment News Service (ENS) 2001. All rights reserved. |
The Southern Utah Wilderness Alliance asked for a hearing in September
after state agency authorized UEI to proceed with its plans to mine coal at
the canyon. The alliance argued in a hearing earlier this month that UEI's
application failed to address key geologic, hydrologic and biological
factors and that it improperly processed the permit as a revision to the
Horse Canyon Mine rather than a new one.
