Group challenges permit for Eagle Butte mine
Group challenges permit for Eagle Butte mine
By Camille Erickson
Casper Star-Tribune
Via Wyoming News Exchange
CASPER — A Wyoming conservation group is urging state environmental regulators to deny a coal company another mining permit, alleging the operator of two Wyoming mines failed to comply with regulations or resolve outstanding violations, according to a letter shared with the Star-Tribune.
The Powder River Basin Resource Council is a group representing landowners, including many of whom live near coal mines. In a Dec. 21 letter to Wyoming Department of Environmental Quality, the organization objected to coal firm Eagle Specialty Materials’ application to renew a mining permit for the Eagle Butte mine, located just outside Gillette.
Eagle Specialty Materials is one of the newest coal companies to take over operations at coal mines in Wyoming. It resumed operations at the Eagle Butte and Belle Ayr coal mines in the Powder River Basin after former operator Blackjewel filed for bankruptcy in 2019.
But Eagle Specialty Materials does not have a right to operate the Eagle Butte mine, according to staff attorney Shannon Anderson, with the Powder River Basin Resource Council. That’s because the federal leases associated with the mine have not been transferred over to the new operator.
The terms of the transfer are still being negotiated with the U.S. Interior Department, and have been held up in bankruptcy court for over a year.
Part of the delay over the federal lease transfer comes down to the $50 million in delinquent mineral royalty payments that Blackjewel failed to pay when it filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy in July 2019.
What’s more, Eagle Specialty Materials still needs to decide if it will assume the permits associated with other mine sites held by Blackjewel for idle coal mines out east.
“Eagle Specialty Material (ESM)’s permit renewal application must be denied until such time as ESM can demonstrate that it has lawful access to the federal coal rights within the permit boundary,” Anderson wrote in the letter to state environmental regulators. “Otherwise, (the Department of Environmental Quality) will be approving a mine permit renewal knowing that the permit does not comply with applicable laws and regulations, in violation of ... the Environmental Quality Act.”
In addition, the group contends the permit application submitted by the coal company remains incomplete and lacks updated annual coal production data at its Wyoming mines.
According to the U.S. Mining, Safety and Health Administration, the Eagle Butte mine produced under 9.2 million tons of coal between January and September of 2020. That’s down 46% from the first three quarters of 2010.
It’s not just Eagle Butte that is struggling to stay afloat as demand for coal declines nationwide. At the operators’ neighboring Belle Ayr mine, production in the first three quarters of 2020 fell by 58%, compared to that period a decade ago.
Coal mined at the Eagle Butte mine was delivered to four power plants in the third quarter of 2020, including the Jeffrey Energy Center, Fayette Power Project, Pawnee Generating Station and Plant Scherer, according to the U.S. Energy Information Administration. That means the mine likely has significantly fewer customers than it did 10 years before. In the third quarter of 2010, Eagle Butte sent coal to 15 different facilities around the country.
Eagle Specialty Materials did not respond to a request for comment for this story.
The Department of Environmental Quality will host a virtual conference to discuss the permit renewal at 10 a.m. on Jan. 21.
“As the informal conference has yet to be held, it would be improper to respond to the concerns that PRBRC raised through the media,” a spokesman for the state agency said. “The informal conference provides the public an opportunity to bring forth information and additional context to the director. After the conference, the director will make his decision within 60 days.”