Description: Challenge to mine expansion permit.
-
Diné Citizens Against Ruining Our Environment v. United States Office of Surface Mining Reclamation and Enforcement
Case Documents:
Filing Date Type File Action Taken Summary 06/05/2015 Notice of Appeal Download Federal respondents' notice of appeal filed. The United States Office of Surface Mining Reclamation and Enforcement (OSM) and other federal defendants joined the owner of the Navajo Mine in New Mexico in appealing March and April decisions by the federal district court for the District of New Mexico that vacated the federal approval of a permit revision.
04/06/2015 Order Download Permit approval vacated; permit remanded to OSM for further proceedings. The federal district court for the District of Colorado vacated the approval of a permit revision that authorized expansion of the Navajo Mine in New Mexico. The court also vacated the environmental assessment and finding of no significant impact (EA/FONSI) that OSM had prepared for the expansion. In its order vacating the EA/FONSI and permit review approval, the court found that prospective economic harm to the mine’s operator did not outweigh “doubts concerning the validity of OSM’s actions that are raised by the deficiencies in OSM’s EA/FONSI and its approval” of the permit revision. The court also found that the operator and federal respondents had not demonstrated that vacatur was likely to result in closure of the mine or power plant.
03/02/2015 Memorandum Opinion and Order Download Petition granted. In March 2015, the court ruled that the environmental review by the Office of Surface Mining Reclamation and Enforcement (OSM) should have considered the indirect effects of the mine’s expansion—in particular, the impacts of mercury deposition in the area of the coal-fired Four Corners Power Plant. 05/15/2012 Petition Petition filed. Several environmental groups filed a lawsuit in Colorado federal court alleging that the federal government did not analyze the overall environmental impact in approving a coal mine expansion permit in New Mexico. The mine at issue is the sole source of coal for the Four Corners Power Plant on the Navajo tribal reservation. The plant is the largest source of nitrogen oxide emissions nationwide. -
Diné Citizens Against Ruining Our Environment v. United States Office of Surface Mining Reclamation and Enforcement
Case Documents:
Filing Date Type File Action Taken Summary 08/20/2015 Motion to Dismiss Download Appellees' motion to dismiss appeal filed. The appellees asked the Tenth Circuit to dismiss the mine operator’s appeal as premature. 08/18/2015 Motion to Dismiss Download Motion for voluntary dismissal with prejudice filed. The U.S. Office of Surface Mining Reclamation and Enforcement voluntarily dismissed its appeal. An appeal by the mine’s operator, Navajo Transitional Energy Company, LLC, is still pending in the Tenth Circuit Court of Appeals. 04/16/2015 Order Download Motion for emergency stay denied. On April 16, 2015, the Tenth Circuit Court of Appeals rejected the request by the mine’s operator for a stay.