Dec 23, 2016 3 min read

A judge for the state Environmental Hearing Board has scheduled a hearing on a petition filed by two environmental groups seeking to stop Consol Energy’s Bailey Mine from mining beneath two streams in and adjacent to Ryerson Station State Park.

Acting on a petition filed by the Sierra Club and Center for Coalfield Justice, Judge Steven Beckman issued an order Friday scheduling a hearing on the matter and temporarily preventing the company from mining within 500 feet of Kent Run in the park.

The order came too late to apply to Polen Run, the second stream included in the environmental groups’ petition.

According to the judge’s order, company officials informed the board in a conference call Thursday that Polen Run already had been undermined.

Company officials also told the board during the conference call that mining would be unlikely to take place beneath Kent Run before mid-February, the order said.

Beckman scheduled a hearing on the group’s petition for Jan. 10. He also asked Consol to present the board with written approval from the state Department of Conservation and Natural Resources allowing it to mine within the park.

“There are numerous environmental laws and regulations that we must live up to on a daily basis, and the permit at issue here is no exception,” said Jimmy Brock, chief executive officer of CNX Coal Resources. He earlier said 2,000 jobs at the mining complex were at stake in the permitting issue.

“This has little to do with the environment and everything to do with an extreme philosophy that the people of Pennsylvania rejected at the ballot box in November. We will continue to vigorously defend the livelihoods of the 2,000 employees at the Bailey Complex,” Brock said.

The two environmental groups last week appealed a permit revision issued by the state Department of Environmental Protection Dec. 13 that allowed Consol to conduct full extraction mining under sections of Polen Run and Kent Run.

The sections of the streams are in a 3,175-acre area east of and under the park for which Consol received a permit to mine in 2014 as part of its Bailey Lower East Expansion. Additional DEP approval was required, however, before mining was allowed under portions of certain streams.

The two groups had asked the environmental hearing board to halt mining under the streams until their appeal could be heard.

“We are grateful to Judge Beckman for granting temporary protection to Kent Run from the destructive damage of longwall mining while we await the imminent decision from the Environmental Hearing Board on the legality of Consol’s mining practices,” said Tom Schuster of the Sierra Club.

Schuster was referring to a previous appeal on similar issues regarding mine subsidence and its impact on streams filed by the groups earlier this year. A decision on that case, which claims Consol’s mining activities violate Clean Stream Laws, is expected in February, Schuster said.

“It’s hard to believe the state has allowed mining to begin with the understanding that the expected damage to streams could well be deemed illegal in a little over a month,” he said.