July 2014
Springfield Coal Company failed to pay over $1 million in coal strip mine bond fees that were due for the Industry Mine Permit 16 in 2012 and has not been given a renewal of the permit. The Permit 16 includes the mine office, coal processing plant, coal waste impoundments and numerous mine water retention areas and coal ash dumps. Strip mine reclamation can be done without an active permit, however no coal processing or other active mining work can be done without the state approved permit. The Littleton Strip Mine permit application for a proposed mine in Schuyler County was planned to have coal processed at this location. The Illinois Office of the Attorney General on behalf of the state EPA is still pursuing legal action against this mine for over 600 water permit violations.
Sierra Club, Prairie Rivers Network, and the Environmental Law and Policy Center have been contesting the hundreds of violations at this mine in a case that was filed in 2010 before the Illinois Pollution Control Board and is still underway. Members of Heart of Illinois Group Sierra, Prairie Rivers Network, and local citizens requested a state public hearing on the permit renewal and raised numerous issues against the renewal, including the fact that there was a large bond due in 2012 and at that time IDNR had given the mine 90 days to pay and the bond was still not paid by the mine. The Illinois Department of Natural Resources issued the permit denial based on state regulations that require payment of bond fees.
Citizens are hopeful this denial will mean the end of decades of ongoing water permit violations at the Industry Mine and that mining will be ended at this location. Clean-up is supposed to be done according to the state approved reclamation plan.