EPA set to veto mountaintop removal coal mine

The Environmental Protection Agency has proposed an unprecedented veto to restrict or prohibit mining at a major proposed US mountaintop removal coal mining site. If the veto is finalized, it would invalidate a permit first issued in 2007 for the Army Corps of Engineers at the Spruce No. 1 surface mine in southern West Virginia. In explaining its decision, the EPA said Friday the Arch Coal Inc. mine would pollute surrounding water, fill over seven miles (11 kilometers) of stream, would cause "unacceptable" harm to wildlife and "directly impact" some 2,278 acres of forest. A rare step in three decades of mountaintop mining in West Virginia, Kentucky and Virginia, the decision was the first time the EPA has proposed to veto a mine that already had received a permit. It was the 12th time the agency has used its veto power for any project since the 1972 Clean Water Act became law.