An uphill battle over coal mining
Hillsboro landowners seek remedy for coal slurry pond
COAL | Patrick Yeagle
If Catherine Edmiston of Hillsboro gets her way, coal mining in Illinois could be drastically curtailed.
The 86-year-old Edmiston has been fighting for a decade to shut down the Deer Run Mine near Hillsboro, and her battle may be coming to an end as the Illinois Department of Natural Resources decides whether part of the mine’s permit is valid. The mine operator, Hillsboro Energy LLC, says its plan is safe and legal, and the company questions whether Edmiston and other landowners even have the right to challenge their permit.
Hillsboro Energy is a subsidiary of Foresight Energy, which is owned by coal magnate Chris Cline. Kimberly Fladhammer, an attorney for Hillsboro Energy, did not return repeated calls seeking comment.
Cathy Edmiston is the leader of a group of Hillsboro landowners called Citizens Against Longwall Mining (CALM). She owns part of a farm outside Hillsboro, near the Deer Run mine, as do many other members of CALM. The group asked DNR to reconsider the Deer Run permit in 2004, but most of their objections were dismissed in administrative court. Their last objection, however, challenges the widespread practice of storing coal slurry – a mix of water, coal dust and chemicals resulting from refining coal – in large ponds known as “impoundments.” Under state and federal regulations, the ponds are not allowed to be permanent. CALM contends that the Deer Run pond violates the regulations because it will remain in place essentially forever, merely covered with clay and topsoil instead of being removed when the mine is closed.
Land used for mining in Illinois is required to be “remediated” after mining concludes, which typically entails filling holes, removing structures and cleaning up spills. However, the extent to which companies must go to remediate land has long been a point of contention between the companies, state regulators and environmental groups.
Lawyers for CALM and Hillsboro Energy sparred repeatedly during a two-day administrative hearing in Springfield on June 22 and 23, in which Edmiston and experts hired by her group attempted to establish that the impoundment at Deer Run will remain a source of pollution even after it’s covered. Lawyers for Hillsboro Energy repeatedly objected to the testimony on grounds of its relevance to the sole issue of whether the impoundment is allowed under the regulations.
CALM maintains that covering the impoundment will still allow water to seep in and leach pollutants into the surrounding soil, potentially carrying those pollutants to streams which flow through Edmiston’s farm and eventually north to the Sangamon River.
To prove that the mine will remain a hazard after the proposed remediation, CALM presented testimony from two experts: Charles Norris, a geologist and hydrologist from Denver, Colorado, and Jack Spadaro, a mining consultant and former mining engineer with the Federal Mine Safety and Health Administration who helped write the federal mining regulations. The men testified that water would flow in and out of the impoundment forever, allowing possible leakage of coal slurry or even a potential breach of the impoundment walls. CALM wants Hillsboro Energy to install an impermeable liner in the coal slurry pond to prevent leaching.
In order to even have legal standing to challenge the impoundment’s permit, however, Edmiston and her cohorts must show that they have been or are likely to be actually harmed by the impoundment. That’s a tall order for several reasons, including the fact that chemicals potentially leaching from the impoundment could take years to appear at Edmiston’s farm.
If Edmiston and CALM prevail in their battle – which appears to be only a tenuous possibility given the high bar for their legal standing – they believe the case could have widespread ramifications for coal mines across the state. They hope a ruling in their favor could trigger a review of similar impoundments in Illinois; in essence, they want to make coal mining so cumbersome that companies no longer find it profitable.
“Citizens shouldn’t have to hire a lawyer,” Edmiston said, “to make the corporations follow the law.”
Contact Patrick Yeagle at pyeagle@illinoistimes.com.
