Frasure Creek Mining is filling streams without permits

KFTC and the Sierra Club have put the Frasure Creek Mining company on notice for destroying streams at three mountaintop removal coal mines in eastern Kentucky without permits to do so.  The Notice gives the company 60 days to correct the violations or face legal action from the groups.  Read the notice letter here.

The groups cited evidence – including Notices of Violation issued by the state – that the company is conducting mining operations despite the fact that applications for permits for all three mines have not gone through a complete review process by the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) and the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers. 

The illegal stream destruction has occurred at Frasure Creek's mines along the Floyd/Magoffin border and in Pike County. The company has constructed at least three valley fills and eight sediment holding ponds in streams, in spite of concerns about water pollution at the sites and without necessary approval.

The federal agencies reviewing the permits are required by to law to ensure that mining activity does not "result in significant harm to water quality and the environment." Frasure Creek has not offered proof that its operations will not cause such harm. Pollutants entering the water as a result of these practices are known to cause cancer in humans.

"When you live here, you know that many coal companies mine as outlaws without regard to public health or safety.  They regularly violate the law, often with little or no cost to the company," said KFTC member Doug Doerrfeld. "This shirking the law is part of the standard operating procedure around here, but that is going to change – we will hold these companies to their word and to the law."

Frasure Creek is the same company that sent a boulder into the home of the Tussy family in Floyd County last year. (Read that story here.) The company was also cited in 2008 by the U.S. Department of Labor for underpaying workers for overtime and had to pay back all missed wages. Frasure has a history of legal violations in both Kentucky and West Virginia.

Many coal companies show similarly flagrant disregard for the law throughout Central Appalachia, and state and federal agencies routinely fail to hold offenders fully accountable.