News
Tonight: Info Session On Coal Project’s Impact on Local Waterways
By: WOUB Staff reports
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GLOUSTER — Trimble High School will play host to the Ohio Environmental Protection Agency on Thursday night as they consider a new coal mining project in the area.
A public information session will be held at 6 p.m. “to discuss a water quality certification application for a mining project in Trimble Township near the intersection of Johnson Run and Oakdale roads,” according to a news release from the Ohio EPA. The mining project in question is one for Oxford Mining Company, which is primarily located in Coshocton.
In the application for the water quality certification, signed by Steve Cassidy, environmental coordinator for the mining company, Oxford states it plans to recover a coal seam “by surface mining operations.”
The project is proposed to cover 299.3 acres and is estimated to recover 1,160,000 tons of coal, a project overview included with the certification application states.
The company wrote that the project would cause “primary impacts” to more than 1,200 feet of streams and 2.51 acres of wetlands.
“Discharges from this project have a potential to affect the quality of streams and wetlands in the Sunday Creek Watershed,” the EPA release stated. “Although the project may result in a change from current water quality conditions, the changes cannot violate Ohio’s water quality standards that protect human health and the environment.”
Comments can also be submitted in writing, and sent to Ohio EPA-DSW, Permits Processing Unit, P.O. Box 1049, Columbus Ohio, 43216-1049. They can also be emailed to dswcomments@epa.ohio.gov.
The public comment period ends June 1.