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OPINIONS
Editorial: Protection of East Lynn Lake is key in mining plan
Two coal companies have filed to expand their operations within a few hundred feet of East Lynn Lake and within a third of a mile of the dam in Wayne County. Even though the Corps of Engineers built and operates the lake and dam, the Bureau of Land Management office in Milwaukee has the final say on the project.
Purchase this photoTwo coal companies want to expand their operation in Wayne County to the area of East Lynn Lake. The U.S. Army Corps of Engineers built the dam that created the lake, bought land around the lake and operates the recreation area that goes with it, but it does not have the final say on whether an underground coal mine can come within a few hundred feet of the lake and within a third of a mile of the dam.
Instead, the decision will rest with the Bureau of Land Management office in Milwaukee.
That's not the way it should be done.
In an article in The Herald-Dispatch a week ago today, reporter Bryan Chambers noted that Rockspring Development and Argus Energy, both of which have existing underground mines on private property in Wayne County, want to lease 13,089 acres of government-owned land within the boundaries of the East Lynn Lake project, which is about 24,000 acres.
The Corps of Engineers spent $37 million on acquiring property and building East Lynn Lake in the 1960s and another $55.5 million between 1977 and 1991 to acquire mineral rights around the lake to protect it from problems that come with coal mining.
But when the Water Resources Development Act was passed in 1999, Rep. Nick Rahall, D-W.Va., successfully inserted an amendment that removed the Corps of Engineers' consent authority over the mineral rights at East Lynn Lake. The amendment instead placed that authority with the U.S. Bureau of Land Management.
Applications from coal companies to lease the public land soon followed.
Argus and Rockspring want to mine approximately 26 million tons of coal on the East Lynn Lake property over a 10- to 15-year period. No surface mining would be performed.
The Bureau of Land Management could make a decision on the coal lease application as early as spring 2009, said Marcia Sieckman, supervisor of natural resources for the bureau's Milwaukee field office, which is reviewing the application. The application would then have to go through the normal mining permit process with the state.
Rahall said he took away the Corps of Engineers' consent authority over coal lease proposals at East Lynn Lake because every time the Bureau of Land Management received an application, the Corps refused to review it.
The breaking point, Rahall said, came in 1997 when Pen Coal (the company went bankrupt and later became Argus Energy) submitted a lease application and the Corps of Engineers refused to look at it.
"After a year of discussions with the Corps and growing frustration because of their refusal to even comment on the lease application, I took action by removing its consent authority in order to level the playing field," Rahall told Chambers.
Rahall said he isn't taking a position on whether the coal lease should be granted.
The Corps of Engineers acquired the land around the lake for many reasons -- including to protect it -- as a flood control facility and as a recreation area, among other reasons. There is no reason to draw a large no-mining zone around the lake, but the BLM will need the guidance of the corps in determining how close mining should be allowed.
This proposal needs to be scaled back so it does not threaten East Lynn Lake.
