(C) Daily Montanan This story was originally published by Daily Montanan and is unaltered. . . . . . . . . . . Groups pressure state, federal authorities to fix problems with Signal Peak Mine – Daily Montanan [1] ['Darrell Ehrlick', 'More From Author', '- October'] Date: 2023-10-16 Cattle with broken legs. Freshwater springs that have been disrupted or dried up. And, most obvious of all, huge cracks in the land, which is literally crumbling from coal mining. Those are the allegations groups and individuals have levied against Signal Peak Energy for years. Signal Peak operates the Bull Mountain coal mine, which straddles the border between Musselshell and Yellowstone counties. Ranchers and residents have been complaining that state officials have turned a blind eye to numerous environmental violations for years in an effort to keep the economic engine of the mine chugging along. However, those same groups say it’s time to force the mine to get serious about fixing the problems it has created. Not satisfied with the response from Montana’s Department of Environmental Quality, attorneys with Earthjustice and Western Environmental Law Center have put federal authorities with the Office of Surface Mining Reclamation and Enforcement on notice that they’ve documented repeatedly the problems with Signal Peak, and they expect officials to follow the law. In a letter with an attached legal analysis, the groups said that Signal Peak continues to side-step the law by failing to repair the surface land, which is being strained by the coal mining activity below. Large cracks in the land, called subsidence, appear when the ground below shifts or caves because of material taken below it. That leaves cracks and chasms on the surface, which, ranchers and property owners, say threatens cattle and people. Furthermore, they say Signal Peak continues to ignore the legal requirements to fix it largely because state inspectors through the DEQ either won’t enforce the laws, or have created rules that don’t exist in Montana’s mining statutes. For example, the groups complain to federal officials that the state’s Department of Environmental Quality has exempted Signal Peak from repairing subsidence cracks on any land with a slope of greater than 20%. However, they argue that since that the bulk of the mine is located on mountainous property, that practically exempts the coal mine from any responsibility. Furthermore, that exception does not exist in Montana law, making it illegal. The groups sent a letter with the legal analysis on Oct. 12, and they’re asking federal officials to either inspect the subsidence or assign the DEQ to perform the inspection within 10 days. Representatives for Signal Peak Mining did not respond to requests for comments. Officials for the federal Office of Surface Mining Reclamation and Enforcement said they were unaware of the letter and analysis, and said regardless that they don’t comment on pending litigation. Meanwhile, the Montana DEQ officials acknowledged the letter and said that it’s working to gather more information. “DEQ continues to work closely with the Office of Surface Mining Reclamation and Enforcement (OSMRE) on complaints related to the Signal Peak Mine,” a DEQ spokesperson said in a written statement. “DEQ conducts monthly inspections at the mine to assess compliance with statutes, rules and the permit. The permit includes a plan for Signal Peak to address subsidence cracks, and the timing for doing so. DEQ has asked some of the local complainants to provide locations of alleged subsidence so that those areas can be visited by DEQ staff at the next monthly inspection and assessed against the statutes, rules and permit.” The letter with the analysis is replete with photographs that demonstrate large cracks in the land, some spreading inches with no bottom in sight. They say those alone should be enough to trigger a federal investigation, and force the mine to take action. The groups also point out that the original analysis of the mine’s impacts in 1990 was flawed because the operations plans predicted that the “maximum amount of subsidence” would not cause a material damage or lessen the land’s value for ranching. “The subsidence has caused material damage and a diminution in value of the land, and presents serious hazards for grazing cattle, wildlife, and property owners. Ranchers have reported cattle breaking legs or injuring themselves with the probable cause being subsidence cracks,” the analysis said. “In spring and summer, the cracks can be hidden by tall grass, creating a unique hazard for vehicles. This is a danger to ranchers. It is also a danger to any wildland fire engines that respond to wildfires in the Bull Mountains.” In the documents, the environmental groups allege a long pattern of indifference or ignoring regulations in order to keep Signal Peak functioning without penalty. For example, attorneys note that Signal Peak incorrectly speculated that no “renewable resources” or grazing land would be affected – both claims that have already been proven untrue. For example, Signal Peak has had to take measures to restore water to some area property owners whose natural springs were affected by the underground coal mining. However, the attorneys say the Montana DEQ – and by extension, federal officials – have been ignoring the problems by not forcing the mining company to take action. The group also claims that Montana made up its own rules by telling Signal Peak it would not have to repair cracks on subsidence cracks greater than 20% slope, which they say is not legal. “(It) calls into serious question whether longwall mining was lawfully permitted in the Bull Mountains in the first place,” the analysis said. “There is no regulatory exception in the state’s program to the requirement to ‘promptly’ restore land damaged by subsidence. “It also demonstrates DEQ and Office of Surface Mining’s failures to fulfill their responsibility to reject the mining plan from including areas with slopes greater than 20%.” The analysis claims that DEQ has left an area unreclaimed for more than a decade around Dunn Mountain, which was damaged by mining in December 2010, when a crack in the floor of the mine went to the surface. For more than a year, crews worked on filling the crack that went two hundred feet deep, one-quarter mile long. Crews had to use pump tankers of nitrogen that drilled into the ground and coal in order to prevent spontaneous combustion. Photographs show that reseeding and reclaiming the site has been unsuccessful. “DEQ has required no further action on the part of Signal Peak to reclaim the impacted land. Some of the steep slopes have no mulch and are developing deep rills,” the document said. “Eleven years have now passed since Signal Peak damaged the land, with only minimal efforts at reclamation, which have been unsuccessful. Clearly, Signal peak is failing to follow its approved reclamation Plan and DEQ is failing to conduct the required monitoring and enforcement to ensure impacted lands are reclaimed properly.” [END] --- [1] Url: https://dailymontanan.com/2023/10/16/groups-pressure-state-federal-authorities-to-fix-problems-with-signal-peak-mine/ Published and (C) by Daily Montanan Content appears here under this condition or license: Creative Commons CC BY-NC-ND 4.0. via Magical.Fish Gopher News Feeds: gopher://magical.fish/1/feeds/news/montanan/