A 6th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals panel has unanimously upheld an Army Corps of Engineers permit for a Kentucky mountaintop removal project. At issue was whether the Army Corps properly scrutinized a Clean Water Act permit for James River Coal Co.'s Leeco Inc. Stacy Branch Mine under the National Environmental Policy Act. The three-judge panel's ruling last week in the Army Corps' favor upholds a lower court's decision and comes as a blow to an effort by environmental advocates to get state and federal agencies to consider new science about the potential health effects of strip mining. "Because the Corps did not abuse its discretion in limiting the scope of its environmental analysis only to health effects closely related to the discharge of dredged or fill material into jurisdictional waters, the Corps did not violate NEPA," Judge John Rogers, a Republican appointee, wrote for the panel.
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