Judge Halts Wise County Logging

BY DEBRA McCOWN
BRISTOL HERALD COURIER
ABINGDON, Va. – A federal judge issued a preliminary injunction Monday that will stop logging on Ison Rock Ridge in Wise County.

The ruling came after a Friday hearing in which two environmental groups requested that the work be stopped.

“This court ruling is a huge victory for the communities of Appalachia that have suffered for far too long from the devastating effects of mountaintop removal mining,” said Aaron Isherwood, staff attorney for the Sierra Club.

“If it stands, I think it will have major repercussions throughout the region.”

In the ruling, Senior U.S. District Judge Glen M. Williams ordered U.S. Secretary of the Interior Dirk Kempthorne to issue cessation orders immediately.

These orders would be “… to ensure that Penn Virginia Operating Company, LLC, Mountain Forest Products, Inc., or any other entity acting in concert with them cease removing vegetation, clear-cutting timber and constructing or improving roadways or conducting any other ‘surface coal mining operations’ on the property… .”

Isherwood said the court’s decision is clear on what is currently an open question of law: whether mining companies must obtain a mining permit before clear-cutting the proposed mine site.

At issue is whether logging after applying for a mining permit is defined under mining regulations as “surface coal mining operations.”

A surface coal mining permit for the site is pending for A&G Coal Corp., the same company that paid a fine and settled a large civil lawsuit after a boulder dislodged by a bulldozer killed a sleeping child in his bed in 2004.

On Ison Rock Ridge, the company has a contract with the landowner, Penn Virginia Operating Co., which also has contracted with Mountain Forest Products to remove timber from the site.

Neither A&G nor Penn Virginia had any comment on the Ison Rock Ridge case. Karl Kindig, one of the owners of Mountain Forest Products, referred to court documents filed by the company when asked about the case.

“Mountain Forest Products has no interest in the proposed surface mine and has no involvement with A&G concerning the mine,” according to its motion to intervene – a request to be added as a defendant in the case.

“Mountain Forest Products intends to cut and remove the timber whether or not a surface mine permit is issued to A&G.”

According to the motion, the company has never been engaged in mining and has contracted with Penn Virginia to log about 110 acres of forestland on Ison Rock Ridge.

The next step for the Sierra Club and Appalachia, Va.-based Southern Appalachian Mountain Stewards will be to seek a permanent injunction.

The two environmental groups are seeking to prevent the continuation of logging on the site until the mining permit is decided – and, ultimately, to stop the mining permit from being approved.

The mining permit is being sought for more than 1,000 acres.

Penn Virginia also filed a motion asking to be added as a party in the case. According to its motion, “PVOC and its predecessors have engaged in the commercial sale of timber in Southwest Virginia for more than 100 years.”

The motion also states, “The relief sought if granted would deprive PVOC of the income from this use of its property, and affect PVOC’s ability to contract for the harvesting of its timber elsewhere on its property where future coal mining may take place.”

U.S. Magistrate Judge Pamela Meade Sargent, who heard arguments in the case on Friday, recommended in her report and recommendation that the court grant the preliminary injunction.

One issue addressed in the report was the danger of large rocks that tumbled down the mountain onto an adjoining property owner’s family garden.

“I find that the plaintiffs have made a clear showing of great risk of irreparable harm that is ‘neither remote nor speculative, but actual and imminent,’ ” according to Sargent’s report.

Also, she wrote, “I find that the plaintiffs have raised serious questions going to the merits of the case to justify more deliberate investigation.”

The injunction preserves the status quo until the court can decide whether the logging constitutes “surface coal mining operations.”

Such a decision would be the first by a court on the issue.

According to Williams’ order, the injunction remains in effect until further notice of the court.

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