Forest mining to be debated at meeting
The Ohio Department of Natural Resources will hold a second public meeting next week on an application to allow strip mining in a portion of Perry State Forest.
The meeting will be held at 6 p.m. Tuesday in the cafeteria of New Lexington High School, 2549 Panther Dr.
Oxford Mining Company has submitted a 483-page permit application to mine an irregular-shaped, 545acre parcel west of Route 345 and north of County Road 48. The permitted area would include about 12 percent of the 4,567 acres in Perry State Forest, which is
used for various recreational activities, including trails for all-purpose vehicles, dirt motorcycles, horseback riding and hiking. The state forest is about an hour southeast of Columbus.
Oxford was recently purchased by its former owner, Chuck Ungurean, who formed a new company in December, CCU Coal and Construction. No one at CCU returned messages from The Dispatch seeking comment.
Lauren Ketcham, who has a 12-acre farm that borders Perry State Forest, is a member of Friends of Perry State Forest, which has opposed the coal mining from the beginning.
“ODNR should issue a draft permit and make that available for public comment before they consider issuing a final permit,” Ketcham said. “That would allow the community to see what kind of requirements ODNR is going to impose and what issues Oxford has addressed before a final permit is issued.”
An ODNR official said issuing a draft permit is not part of the application process. State
officials have argued that the mining project actually will remove pits of low ph water, fix iron seeps and remove highwalls manmade cliffs on the upward side of an excavation — that were left after the land was mined in the 1930s and 1940s but was never returned to a natural state because environmental regulations weren’t in place then. Under this new application, CCU would be required to reclaim the property after mining is completed.
Given the struggling health of the coal industry, Ketcham has reservations about whether CCU will be able to follow through.
“I think there are reasons to be concerned about the future of these projects and the reclamation forfeiture fund, whether CCU is going to be able to rely on that fund or provide reclamation costs in advance,” she said.
The state’s coal reclamation forfeiture fund, which is designed to pay for land restoration if a company abandons a mining site without reclaiming it, was raided two years ago when then-gov. John Kasich took $5 million to balance the state budget. Because the state never returned the money and coal companies are mining less, therefore paying
less into the account, the fund balance has dropped to about $22 million.
A new actuarial report for the state’s coal fund is due out this year. Preliminary figures will be discussed at a March 13 state-reclamation forfeiture fund advisory board meeting.
The Ohio Environmental Protection Agency already has signed off on a water permit for the proposed mining in Perry State Forest. In response, the Ohio Environmental Council and Friends of Perry State Forest filed an appeal Jan. 22 with the state’s Environmental Review Appeals Commission.
“There are a lot of problems with that permit. There are a lot of protections missing. For example, it’s missing some pollution-control requirements that need to be in there,” said Nathan Johnson, director of public lands for the Ohio Environmental Council. “It’s missing limits on some heavy metal and other pollutants that are toxic to aquatic life.”
If the mining permit is approved by ODNR, discharge wastewater would flow into the Buckeye Fork and ultimately the Hocking River.
A records search shows more than a dozen state environmental violations for rules governing air permits, water permits, wetlands and hazardous waste for Oxford Mining dating back to 2007.
In 2013, Ohio EPA inspectors noted a woman near Rush Run in Jefferson County “observed the tributary running not clear several times in the past few weeks. Specifically she produced a video ... showing a dark colored liquid that she indicated had a diesel fuel odor.”
In 2015, the company was fined $650,000 for providing false information to the EPA between 2007 and 2011. Discharges from its surface mines were in excess of permitted limits, according to Dispatch archives.
“They have a long history of really not having the best track record of cleaning up,” Johnson said. “The last thing we want is a situation where we have a strip mine in a public forest and the company isn’t able to clean the stuff up when it’s done.”
Written comments about the proposed mining permit in Perry State Forest can be emailed to alicia.davis@ dnr.state.oh.us or mailed to ODNR, Division of Mineral Resources Management, 2207 Reiser Ave. SE, New Philadelphia, OH 44663.
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