The Sierra Club, Defenders of Wildlife, Statewide Organizing for Community eMpowerment (SOCM) and Tennessee Clean Water Network (TCWN) filed the lawsuit in the US District Court for the Middle District of Tennessee on Thursday.
The groups allege that the government agencies violated the act by approving mining permits for National Coal Corp’s Zeb Mountain mine and Tackett Creek Mining’s Davis Creek Area 5 mine, both in Tennessee.
Sierra Club and its allies argue that OSM and the Service failed to fully consider the effects pollution from mining operations would have on the endangered Cumberland darter and the threatened blackside dace; two fresh water fish found primarily in the areas threatened by mining waste pollution from these sites.
Specifically, the groups allege that the agencies have ignored data available that shows how specific forms of mining pollution at these sites endanger the fish.
“Extinction of endangered species is too high a price to pay for surface mining,” said Mary Anne Hitt, Director of Sierra Club’s Beyond Coal Campaign.
“The Office of Surface Mining failed in its duty to ensure endangered species were protected when it granted mining permits at Zeb Mountain and Davis Creek. Mining pollution from these sites clearly poses a risk to the dace and darter; these permits should have never been allowed to go forward.”
The groups contend that high levels of water conductivity created by mining pollution put the future of the two fish at risk.
“Conductivity is a measure of the ability of fresh water to carry an electric current. The higher the conductivity level in Appalachian streams, the more pollutants are in the water and the greater the threat to certain species of aquatic life,” the groups stated.
Conductivity is measured in microSiemens per centimeter (µS/cm) with a safe level for the darter and dace being less than 240 µS/cm. The groups said tests of the water downstream from the Zeb mine show conductivity ranging from 538 to 886 µS/cm.
The Davis mine is not yet in production but the groups said that it is “extremely likely to cause conductivity.”
“What is remarkable here is that the Service and OSM have all of the studies showing that high conductivity caused by coal mining harms these fish” said staff attorney for Defenders of Wildlife Greg Buppert, who will be representing the groups in the case.
The groups contend that because the agencies failed to take on the information, there is a clear violation of the Act.
