January 2015
Good news! Thanks to the years of dedicated efforts by Heart of Illinois Group Sierra Club and the local Fulton County group Canton Area Citizens for Environmental Issues, the proposed North Canton coal strip mine Permit No. 385 is ended. The Circuit Court case contesting this mine permit was officially over January 16th, 2015, winning an over eight-year effort by Heart of Illinois Group Sierra Club to confront the mine. Outreach to help establish the local Canton Group, Canton Area Citizens for Environmental Issues (CACEI) began in 2008 and was essential in winning this victory to protect Canton Lake and its watershed. CACEI members under the amazing leadership of Brenda Dilts kept up a constant positive and visible local presence raising concerns about the mine and working for protection of Canton Lake and the watershed. The battle was long and hard and locals faced discrimination and numerous attempts to intimidate them, but never gave up.
1,084.5 acres have been saved from surface strip mining. Six important tributary streams to the Copperas Creek water system have been saved from mine pollutant discharges and major mining destruction and damages. The beautiful rolling Copperas Creek ridges, tall mature oak and hickory timbered woods, and productive farmland along scenic tree-line country lanes will not be leveled and blasted for coal mining. The scenic horse pastures and family farms will not be shaken and rattled as the mine would have excavated down fifty to over eighty feet deep for the one time taking of coal. Rubble from strip mining will not be bulldozed over the hundreds of acres with just a topping of good soil put back to mask the long-term damages to the layers of earth, rock, clay, sand, gravel, and coal that nature built up over the ages to make this watershed.
There is a long story for this important victory. In early 2006, advocates for the mine began trying to convince the Canton City Council to withdraw a long-standing local water protection ordinance regarding the property the mine wanted. Heart of Illinois Group members including Banner Mayor Ken Fuller attended numerous Canton City Council meetings in an effort to convince the city to keep the special ordinance. An official from the Illinois Department of Natural Resources (IDNR) and mine representatives assured the Canton City Council that state regulations would protect the area and that there were no concerns about having the strip mine above Canton Lake. The Canton City Council voted to withdraw the long-standing water protection ordinance at their May 2, 2006, Council Meeting. At first there was a tie vote, with council members who had concerns about the issue, Eric Schenck, Kevin Meade, Clyde West and Larry Sarff , voting to keep the ordinance. Then the Mayor, Rod Heinze cast the tie-breaking vote to remove the ordinance. Questions were raised that a 2/3 vote was needed because this was a city regulation change, however the city attorney, Chrissie Peterson, said that was not necessary.
Not long after this vote, the Illinois Department of Natural Resources approved the mine permit on June 26, 2006. HOI members were among those requesting a public hearing on the mine permit, and the hearing was held October 25, 2006, with several HOI members giving public comments and sending in written concerns about the mine. Local Canton resident Brenda Dilts wrote a letter of concerns about the mine.
In 2008 as the mine state permit approval moved forward, HOI ran ads in Canton papers to raise awareness about the issue. Brenda Dilts responded and with HOI support, began holding open meetings at the Canton library on concerns about the strip mine. Her meetings attracted so many people that the library asked her to move to a different location because, they said, too many parking places were being taken up by meeting participants. Brenda moved the meetings to the Fulton County Health Department and the group named itself Canton Area Citizens for Environmental Issues, Canton Lake and Its Watershed, and continued to grow. Local intimidation attempted to convince the Health Department to stop allowing the meetings. Thanks to the good government at the facility, they offered the people wanting to stop the meetings the opportunity to also hold meetings. The mine proponents did not follow up on that and instead, turned to other types of intimidation, including convincing the local HyVee store to stop allowing the CACEI group to sell coupon books as a fund-raiser.
IDNR approved the mine permit July 29, 2008, with a revision published August 13, 2008, and members of HOI and CACEI requested a state Administrative Review of the permit. A state IDNR Hearing Officer was assigned to the review. Peoria attorney David Wentworth agreed to represent Sierra and CACEI members in the legal process. After months of efforts, Mr. Wentworth won a two day mine site inspection. In October 2010, volunteers from Sierra, including Illinois Chapter Clean Water Advocate Dr. Cindy Skrukrud, and members of CACEI walked the proposed permit area. Expert hydrologist Chuck Norris, with Geo-Hydro, Inc., of Denver, Colorado, was hired by HOI to assist the group. CACEI volunteers provided food and encouragement as the inspection team went through pouring rain followed by hours and hours of combing creek ravines and rough fields. Attorney Wentworth hiked with the group the entire time. Springfield Coal Company Capital Resources LLC engineer and local spokesman Greg Arnett was present for the entire time on the mine property. Prairie Rivers / Sierra apprentice Brian Perbix joined the group and Prairie Rivers water scientist Traci Barkley attended for one day.
In late May of 2012, the Administrative Review hearings finally began and continued at scattered times for 12 days over four months. On February 12, 2013, the state Hearing Officer issued his final decision that the petitioners, Sierra and members of CACEI, had proved with evidence that the application for Permit 385 failed to list Ravine 6 as an intermittent stream and the mine failed to provide information required by state mining law for the protection of the stream as required. This was an amazing victory, and resulted in a significant tributary and 163 acres being denied approval for mining. Sierra Club and Brenda Dilts then filed to Circuit Court in an effort to protect the other streams in the mining permit, continuing the legal battle to stop the strip mine.
In June, 2013, the IDNR approved a permit change for the mine, allowing a revised plan for 921 acres to be strip mined. HOI and CACEI tried to contest the revisions and had requested a public hearing on the IDNR plan to renew Permit 385 for another five years. A public hearing was held on the permit renewal and IDNR announced a second public hearing for July 9, 2013, to include the mine permit revisions. IDNR approved the permit renewal and HOI and CACEI promptly filed to contest the renewal and requested a State Administrative Review. By fall of 2013, HOI and CACEI had been waging three legal battles against the coal mine: the circuit court appeal regarding the remaining streams and other issues in Permit 385, the state review of the permit renewal, and a legal filing to claim fees under mining law for the error the mine had made on Ravine 6. During this time CACEI held many public events and fund-raisers, participated in local parades and held public programs, had “green shirt” get-togethers in many locations, and kept up a positive message to protect Canton Lake.
The mine stated it wanted to terminate its North Canton Permit No. 385 not long before a full three hour court hearing was to be held in September, 2014, where the mine would have to defend its application. On January 16, 2015, a Circuit Court Consent Order was finalized with terms and conditions the mine must meet regarding the permit withdrawal. Canton Area Citizens for Environmental Issues lead a local press conference January 20th , 2015, to announce that the strip mine plans were ended.
“For the residents of Canton and Orion townships this is wonderful news for our water supply and for our land,” said Brenda Dilts, Leader of the Canton Area Citizens for Environmental Issues, Canton Lake and Its Watershed (CACEI). “We did not want an arm of Springfield Coal, the company that had racked up over 600 water permit violations at the Industry Mine, discharging polluted water into our public water supply lake. The strip mine would destroy much of the natural drainage and be harmful to the environment, the watershed and to the people in the community."
"My farm and home would have been directly across from this mine if it had proceeded," said Joe Cooper, member of CACEI and HOI. "I am so grateful to CACEI, Sierra Club, and all the local Canton people who helped raise alarms about how this could ruin our lake watershed. The state mine permit should never have been approved for this mine. The state mining agency simply was not doing its job to enforce the laws on the books. We proved that.”
“Planning a coal strip mine in the watershed that feeds the drinking water lake that supplies water to over half the population of Fulton County was never a good idea," said Dr. Cindy Skrukrud, Clean Water Advocate for the Illinois Chapter of the Sierra Club. "It took years of community pressure and legal action for this coal company to realize that. We’re looking to the IDNR to make the institutional changes necessary to protect the integrity of vital water resources like Canton Lake in its permitting decisions, in line with the federal Surface Mining Control and Reclamation Act."
“The significance of Springfield Coal Company’s permit withdrawal cannot be overstated. This coal company - with sites all over the state and all kinds of coal reserves - was defeated by the dedication, caring and hard work of local citizens,“ said Joyce Blumenshine, Heart of Illinois Group Sierra Club Chair. ”Our attorney, David Wentworth, with the Hasselberg Grebe Snodgrass Urban Wentworth firm in Peoria, had a tremendous case to stop this mine. We fought hard in the community and in court to protect the lake and streams. The fact the mine decided to give up on the eve of our court hearing says a lot.”