Jul 24, 2017 3 min read

A bill aiming to clarify the state’s mining law that will allow for planned mine subsidence beneath streams, provided any damage is not predicted to be permanent and a plan is submitted to repair it, was approved Friday by Gov. Tom Wolf.

Wolf allowed Senate Bill 624 to become law without his signature.

The bill has been opposed by the Center for Coalfield Justice and Sierra Club, which claim it was introduced in response to a lawsuit they filed, now before the state Environmental Hearing Board, regarding whether Consol Energy can mine beneath streams in and near Ryerson Station State Park.

Wolf, in a statement issued Friday, said he allowed the bill to become law because it “clarifies” the relationship between the state’s mining law and Clean Streams Law “in a regulatory process that has been followed since longwall mining was first introduced in southwestern Pennsylvania over 40 years ago.”

Temporary impacts to streams and other water bodies that will be restored to pre-existing conditions after mining is conducted are not prohibited under those two laws, Wolf said.

“Nothing in the law will change existing environmental requirements,” he said.

The state Department of Environmental Protection will continue to review permit applications to ensure proposed mining activities are not expected to create permanent damage prohibited by the Clean Streams Law, he said.

Veronica Coptis, executive director of the Center for Coalfield Justice, said the law, however, will allow a mining permit to be issued that predicts damage to streams “as long as the company promises to repair it,” instead of requiring the company to take steps to prevent damage prior to mining.

Though potential damage to streams from mine subsidence is now considered as part of the review conducted by DEP in issuing mining permits, studies have shown that in some cases undermined streams never recover, she said.

The groups also maintain the law was introduced in direct response to their appeal now before the Environmental Hearing Board.

According to the act, provisions will be retroactive to mine permits dating back to October 2005. These include the permits for mining beneath streams at Ryerson that are now the subject of the groups’ appeal before the Environmental Hearing Board.

Coptis criticized the governor’s action in allowing the bill to become law, which, she said, allows “an environmental justice community that has already been damaged by corporate greed, to suffer another blow, destroying our already compromised public park and any future economic opportunities.”