But late Friday, the state Division of Environmental Protection turned down the proposal from Massey subsidiary Green Valley Coal Co. Green Valley wants to dump waste from a coal preparation plant and two sediment ponds into Blue Branch. Blue Branch is a tributary of Hominy Creek, near Green Valley, Nicholas County. In January, the Ohio Valley Environmental Coalition and the Hominy Creek Preservation Association filed a lawsuit in federal court in Huntington to stop the Green Valley permit revision. The lawsuit alleges that DEP has not properly studied the potential water quality effects of the permit revision. Nationwide permit approvals receive little scrutiny from regulators.
Companies simply agree to follow a set of environmental guide lines.
Nationwide permits are supposed to be used to allow only activities that could cause minimal adverse environmental impacts. On March 9, the Fish and Wildlife Service objected to the Green Valley project's receiving a nationwide permit. In a follow-up letter dated March 24, Towner said that the state Division of Natural Resources disagreed with the service, and had determined that Blue Branch was not a trout stream. We do not believe it is valid for the corps to dismiss our comments by citing another agency's opinion without resolving the substantial concerns. In a separate letter, dated March 23, Towner complained that the corps routinely ignores Fish and Wildlife Service recommendations.