Great News for Clean Water in Kentucky

Cross-posted from Upper Watauga Riverkeeper

In a precedent setting move today, Judge Phillip Shepherd granted intervention to Appalachian Voices, KFTC, the Kentucky Riverkeeper and Waterkeeper Alliance in the Kentucky Energy and Environment Cabinet’s Case against International Coal Group (ICG) and Frasure Creek Mining.

The case in which we are intervening is one brought by the Kentucky Energy and Environment Cabinet in response to a 60 day Notice of Intent to Sue we filed back in October 2010. Our case alleged 20,000 violations of the Clean Water Act and had maximum fines for the companies of $740 million, while the Cabinet’s case was essentially a slap on the wrist that would prevent us from filing our federal case.

The Appalachian Voices Water Watch team is thrilled beyond measure that Judge Shepherd gave us the green light to use the tools of discovery and deposition to gather more information and go after these law breaking coal companies. Unlike the state of Kentucky, we will put the pedal to the metal until the truth is revealed and justice prevails.

Judge Phillips summed up the key reasons for granting the intervention as follows:

“The Intervenors, representing the very citizens and interested environmental groups who brought these violations to light through their own expenditure of a massive amount of time and effort to research the public records of the Cabinet, have come forward with good faith allegations that the consent decree is inadequate to protect the public interest.”

“The Cabinet, by its own admission, has ignored these admitted violations for years. The citizens who brought these violations to light through their own efforts have the legal right to be heard when the Cabinet seeks judicial approval of a resolution of the environmental violations that were exposed through the efforts of these citizens. In these circumstances, it would be an abuse of discretion to deny those citizens and environmental groups the right to participate in this action, and to test the provisions of the consent decree against the applicable legal standard of whether the consent decree is “fair, adequate, and reasonable, as well as consistent with the public interest.”

Finally, we would like to thank everyone who wrote letters in support of our intervention. We couldn’t have done it without you.

Click here to see the judge’s orders.

Click here for more background on the case.

Read the original post here:
Great News for Clean Water in Kentucky