News
Joy Hollow Mine Permit Put On “Back Burner”
By: Fred Kight
Posted on:
Opponents of a proposed Athens County coal mine are celebrating and claiming victory for stopping the mine.
Save Our Rural Environment (SORE) says a permit for the Joy Hollow mine in Bern Township has been put on a "back burner" by state regulators.
Members of SORE say the Ohio Department of Natural Resources Division of Mining and Minerals Management sent a letter to a SORE member "stating that the department had ceased the review of Oxford Mining Company's application."
The letter indicates Oxford is now focused on other mine projects.
Save Our Rural Environment points out the state "did not deny the permit, nor did Oxford Mining pull the permit from review."
"We are confident that our unrelenting attention to the regulatory process of the permit review let (the state) know that SORE is playing the public role of watch dog," says SORE spokeswoman Roxanne Groff.
SORE says the group has also filed a petition with the Federal Office of Surface Mining.
The purpose is to have the state, quote, "consistently enforce the coal mining laws of the Ohio Regulatory Program."