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A West Virginia environmental group best known for challenging mountaintop removal permits in court is planning to sue two companies for mining before they received any permit at all, according to Scott Finn of WV Public Radio.
The Appalachian Center for the Economy and the Environment says companies were strip mining and filling streams without the required permits from the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers, writes Finn.
That's a violation of the law with civil and even criminal penalties.
Regulatory agencies have made no effort to punish the alleged violators.
One regulator told Finn, mining without the Corps' permission has become a relatively common practice.
Both companies are involved in mountaintop-removal operations, where layers of rock are pushed aside to expose coal seams underneath, and the waste rock is dumped into nearby valleys and streams.
The operators, moving ahead, have made it really impossible for the Corps to control the environmental impacts of the mines.
TECO Energy spokesman Rick Morera says it was an honest mistake, saying these are isolated incidents.
Morera said "And I think one of the issues we have with all general legal matters, we really cannot provide a whole lot of additional details, or I can't provide a more in-depth response than that."
Sierra Club lawyer Aaron Isherwood said "Well you know, it's pretty outrageous situation where a mining company just sort of blatantly disregards the permit requirement like this."
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