Wednesday, September 09, 2015

'Sigh of relief' in NW Colorado after feds beat deadline to keep Colowyo mine open

For Lori Gillam, word that the Colowyo coal mine had dodged the threat of a shutdown ended months of nail-biting. Gillam, who owns Stockmen’s Liquor in Craig, said she was thrilled after learning last week the Interior Department’s Office of Surface Mining beat a federal court deadline Friday that will keep the mine open. “We’re all breathing a sigh of relief,” said Gillam. She and other locals were able to exhale after the agency issued a “finding of no significant impact” on a 2007 expansion permit, then filed Friday a “notice of compliance” with the federal court just days before the Sept. 6 deadline. U.S. District Court Judge R. Brooke Jackson ordered the department in May to redo an environmental assessment on the permit in response to a lawsuit filed by WildEarth Guardians but gave federal officials just 120 days to do so. His decision raised the specter of a mine closure and sent ripples of alarm through northwest Colorado. The Colowyo, owned by Tri-State Generation and Transmission, employs 220 workers and serves as an economic engine for the region. “A lot of people worked very hard and cooperated extremely well to make this happen,” said Moffat County Commissioner John Kinkaid. Gov. John Hickenlooper said in a statement he was grateful for the OSM’s “hard and rapid work” in completing the environmental assessment by the deadline...more

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