Surface Mining Control and Reclamation Act, companies are supposed to reclaim the land as much as possible while mining is still ongoing.
This includes revegetating the land and taking other steps to restore the site, minimize the pollution it generates and prevent hazards like landslides and retention pond failures. The bankruptcy also left the fate of thousands of acres of scarred and polluting land up in the air.įixing land damaged by surface mining is known as mine reclamation.
When Blackjewel, its affiliate Revelation Energy and other related companies declared bankruptcy in July 2019, the mines shut down immediately and didn’t continue to operate during the proceedings, which was unusual. “Blackjewel is not going to be an isolated incident,” Morgan says, “It is not an outlier, it is a bellwether.” A Failing System But its greatest significance is the way it illustrates how the regulatory program is totally broken and unprepared to deal with the state of decline of the coal industry. “Blackjewel is significant for itself,” Sierra Club attorney Peter Morgan says. Once the sixth-largest coal producer in the nation, Blackjewel sent shockwaves through the industry and through coal communities from Virginia to Wyoming when it filed an early-morning emergency petition in July 2019 that kicked off the bankruptcy process, suddenly laying off about 1,700 workers and clawing back paychecks from some employees’ bank accounts.īut as stunning as the Blackjewel bankruptcy was, the flaws it has exposed in the mine cleanup system may have even more profound implications. The bankruptcy of Blackjewel, LLC, and its affiliates was, on its own, a very momentous event in the coal industry. The print version of this story was published on July 29, 2022, and was updated on September 1 to reflect new information provided by regulators after inspections of the Aily Branch Mine.
NEWS CENTER 5 BRISTOL VA UPDATE
Photo by Willie Dodson.Įditor’s note: This story provides an update to Blackjewel’s Catastrophic Bankruptcy and the Collapse of the Mine Cleanup System, a story that first appeared in The Appalachian Voice in March 2022. This poses an increased safety hazard to area residents during heavy rain because of excessive stormwater runoff. Surface mining destroys natural creeks and drainage systems in addition to vegetation. When coal companies fail to reclaim their surface mines, like the Aily Branch Mine pictured here in Buchanan County, Va., they leave vast areas of disturbed ground.
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