Indiana Coal Mine To Become Largest In Eastern U.S. - WRTV Indianapolis

POSTED: 3:16 pm EST January 15, 2012

UPDATED: 3:34 pm EST January 15, 2012

SULLIVAN, Ind. -- The Bear Run Mine in southwestern Indiana will soon become the largest coal mine in the eastern United States, officials said.The Sullivan mine will produce an expected 8 million to 12 million tons of coal annually, as part of Gov. Mitch Daniels' strategy to make coal a viable industry in Indiana.The high rate of production also means that Bear Run will be among the least regulated coal mines in the nation, saving its owner perhaps millions of dollars while raising the potential for putting Hoosiers and aquatic life at risk.Critics, including the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency, maintain the state should have required Bear Run to obtain an individual permit. To do that, Bear Run would have first had to thoroughly study the mine's wastewater and analyze nearby waterways. Based on that information, the state would have crafted a permit that set limits on water pollution and required its owner to test regularly for specific toxins.The 27 largest mines in the U.S. are required to have such a permit, but Bear Run is not. Instead, Indiana regulators only require the mine to follow the rules of a one-size-fits-all general permit, the same one that regulates the state's smallest mine.Thomas Easterly, commissioner of the Indiana Department of Environmental Management, said he thinks the protections are sufficient."If it meets the requirements" of a general permit, Easterly said, "then the environment's protected."IDEM decides whether to require an individual permit.Bear Run's owner, St. Louis-based Peabody Energy, thinks IDEM made the right decision. Peabody is the nation's largest coal company and is responsible for roughly half of the 36 million tons of coal mined annually in Indiana."Peabody has an excellent reputation for environmental stewardship," company spokeswoman Meg Gallagher wrote in an email response to the Star. "Bear Run is continuing with these standards."One of the biggest critics of IDEM's decision is the EPA, which urged the state in a November 2010 letter to require Bear Run to file for an individual permit.Without the wastewater analysis required by an individual permit, the EPA says, Indiana regulators can't know for sure what pollutants are coming out of the mine or how they would affect aquatic life in nearby rivers and streams. The agency also says Bear Run is in an area of Sullivan County where the water is already polluted, according to federal data, and a nearby Peabody mine has violated even the few rules of its general permit, racking up six violations since 2005.William J. Mitsch, a professor of environment and natural resources at Ohio State University, said economics are likely the motivation behind wanting to avoid an individual permit that could reveal pollution problems and require costly cleanup measures."The coal mine people and their lawyers, they don't want to know because then they'd have to deal with it," Mitsch said.Peabody, however, says cost was not the deciding factor in why it sought to be covered under a general permit."The first order of business is compliance, not cost," Gallagher, the Peabody spokeswoman, wrote to the Star. "The general permit is the approved and standard process in Indiana. Bear Run uses industry and government-accepted best-management practices."The permit requires Peabody to limit the acidity, iron content and total suspended solids in wastewater flowing from the mine site and to test levels of those pollutants once a month and send the results to IDEM.The state's Department of Natural Resources does its own tests, usually once a month, to ensure that mining company reports are accurate. But EPA officials and environmental regulators in other states say that's not enough.Pollutants often found in mine wastewater -- but not required to be monitored under general permit rules -- include sulfate, selenium, arsenic, cadmium, chromium, lead and mercury.Peabody said its own tests of the mine have determined that sulfate and mercury are "well within state limits," and the company and IDEM say Peabody has done all the wastewater analysis it needs to do.But from 2005 to 2010, Peabody's Farmersburg Bear Run/Sullivan North Mine, which is near Bear Run, violated its general permit rules for pollutants six times, according to EPA data.Beyond conditions of nearby waterways or Peabody's past violations, there is another issue that some say should have inspired IDEM to require an individual permit: Bear Run's sheer size.

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