Greens Sue USA Over Colorado Coal Mine

"Third, BLM and the Forest Service took action on June 27, 2013 to approve the Mine's 'Sunset Trail Area Coal Exploration Plan' within the lease modifications area. The exploration plan allows the mine to immediately bulldoze six miles of road up to 45 feet wide and scrape 10 well pads into the Sunset Roadless Area so that drill rigs can extract core samples, enabling the mine to evaluate the underground coal seam in preparation for mining the lease modifications area."

The environmental impact of the industrial activity will be devastating, the plaintiffs say.

"When coal in the lease modifications is mined, the Forest Service estimates that 1,701 acres of the 5,800-acre Sunset Roadless Area would be crisscrossed by methane drainage wells and associated well pads and roads. Because 99 percent of the lease modifications' acreage lies in the Sunset Roadless area, nearly all of the 48 methane drainage wells identified under the 'Reasonably Foreseeable Mine Plan' in the Final EIS [Environmental Impact Statement] will likely be located within the Sunset Roadless Area. The federal agencies project that the 6.5 miles of new roads necessary to drill and maintain the methane drainage wells will disturb approximately 24 acres of land in the Sunset Roadless Area. Expansion of the West Elk Mine into the Sunset Roadless Area would fragment wildlife habitat, destroy plant and wildlife communities, cause increased air pollution and erosion, diminish solitude, and significantly harm other resources in the Roadless Area. Aspen and spruce trees a century old or older will be logged; the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service concluded that habitat may not recover its 'functionality' for some wildlife species for 30-40 years after the roads and well pads are decommissioned. The area's capability for addition to the preservation as wilderness would also likely be compromised due to the construction of roads, well pads, and clearcutting, some of which will occur within the lands identified as wilderness capable by the Forest Service just eight years ago."

WildEarth Guardians claims Uncle Sam's ruling were not just misguided, they were illegal.

"The lease modifications and exploration plan decisions must be set aside because each violates federal law meant to protect the environment," the complaint states. "The National Environmental Policy Act (NEPA) requires agencies to take a 'hard look' at the risks and consequences of agency actions before they are approved. Here, the BLM and Forest Service failed to take the required hard look. First, the agencies failed to disclose adequately the impacts of coal mining on adjacent lands that its lease modifications decision will unleash. Despite acknowledging that the mine would be unable to access or mine the 8.9 million tons of coal on adjacent lands without the lease modifications, the agencies' Final Environmental Impact Statement (EIS) fails to analyze the surface and other damage from mining on lands outside the leased area. Second, the lease modifications Final EIS fails to address the societal costs of mining and burning the coal within the lease modifications area. Third, the Final EIS fails to disclose the air pollution that will result from mining the lease modifications, failing to estimate the likely emissions of volatile organic compound (VOC) - pollutants that result in the formation of health-threatening smog. Fourth, the Final EIS fails to properly disclose the likely impacts of road and methane drainage well construction on the wilderness and roadless character of the Sunset Roadless Area. Finally, in approving the exploration plan, the agencies failed to fully disclose the environmental impacts of road well pad construction on recreation and wilderness character, or to analyze less damaging alternatives. The Forest Service also failed to comply with its NEPA obligations and regulations providing for public involvement, notice, and appeal prior to deciding to concurring in BLM's approval of the exploration plan.

"In addition, the lease modifications and exploration plan decisions cannot rely on the Colorado Roadless Rule to permit road construction, because the Rule itself was adopted in violation of law. The Forest Service failed to comply with NEPA by failing to take a hard look at the impacts of the Rule's loophole permitting road construction for coal mining, which will allow half a billion tons of coal to be mined and burned that otherwise would stay in the ground.

"Because the Forest Service's and BLM's approval of the lease modifications and the exploration plan violate federal law, the agencies' decisions must be set aside, and any construction of roads or well pads allowed by those decisions must be enjoined."

Plaintiffs want the approvals enjoined under the National Environmental Policy Act, the Mineral Leasing Act, the Colorado Roadless Rule and the Healthy Forests Restoration Act.

They are represented by Edward Zukoski with Earthjustice in Denver.

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