Ramaco’s Brook Coal Mine Faces New Hurdle, Wyoming
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Wyoming’s first proposed coal mine in decades is facing a new hurdle this week: Local landowners.
The Sheridan County mine has had a rocky start in Wyoming. And despite winning legal battles to move the mine forward, the company’s plan for a mine between the Tongue River and Goose Creek is now raising additional concerns.
The Powder River Basin Resource Council filed an objection with state regulators Friday arguing that the Lexington, Kentucky-based company had filed a vague and contradictory plan in its application for a permit.
“The mine plan is based on a plan that will never occur,” the council wrote in its objection Friday.
The council requested an informal conference with state regulators to address what they felt were discrepancies in the company’s plans for production, coal storage and air and land quality issues.
The company’s proposed bond of $371,957 for cleanup costs also falls short, the council wrote.
Wyoming regulators denied the informal conference and referred the conflict to the Environmental Quality Council for a hearing, according to Keith Guille, spokesman for the Wyoming Department of Environmental Quality.
“What we felt, knowing what their objections were, those weren’t going to be resolved through an informal conference,” Guille said. “We are having it moved to the EQC where all parties can be heard.”
In addition to the DEQ and the council, Big Horn Coal has objected to Brook Mine and will be represented at the hearing.
Not all public comments about the new mine have been negative. The city of Sheridan voiced support for Brook and Ramaco, as did the local fire district, Tongue River of Ranchester.
Those that objected feared the noise, dust and impact to ground water.
John Barbula, a landowner in Ranchester, said his property has suffered water depletion from the coal-bed methane boom, and he fears Brook will make the situation worse.
“The proposed mining activity would decrease my family’s quality of life,” he wrote to the DEQ in a public comment Jan. 8. “Especially if the water tables decrease to the point that my home has no running water at all.”
The date for a hearing has not yet been set. Representatives from Ramaco could not be reached by press time.
Source: (Janauary 31, 2017) Casper Star-Tribune
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