CHARLESTON, W.Va. -- Hobet Mining wants to bury more than 4 miles of Berry Branch headwaters as part of a 400-acre expansion of its sprawling mountaintop removal mine along the Boone-Lincoln County border.

Late last week, federal regulators quietly approved the proposal. The U.S. Army Corps of Engineers granted Hobet's request for a Clean Water Act permit on Aug. 1.

But now, lawyers for four environmental groups say the public was told little about the project before it was approved.

On Thursday evening, the Ohio Valley Environmental Coalition and three other groups asked for a court order to block the corps permit.

Among other things, environmental groups allege the corps has ignored repeated selenium pollution violations at Hobet's other mines in the area.

"This creates a significant risk that the new mine, which will be mining selenium-laden coal seams, will be sending selenium contaminated waste to other mines where selenium discharge violations have already occurred," the groups say in court papers.

The case was assigned to U.S. District Judge Robert C. Chambers. Already, a series of 2007 rulings by Chambers requiring more detailed scrutiny of strip mining permits is being appealed by the Bush administration and the coal industry. The 4th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals is scheduled to hear oral arguments on Sept. 23.

The new suit does not specifically allege the corps violated Chambers' previous ruling. Instead, it says that the new Hobet permit contains the same kinds of flaws that led to that ruling.

Generally, environmental groups allege the corps has not adequately studied the mine's potential impacts as required by the Clean Water Act and the National Environmental Policy Act. Further, they allege that the agency wrongly accepted Hobet's plans to "mitigate" any damage by rebuilding streams that are damaged.

Corps officials issued the Hobet permit on Aug. 1, but it was not included on a list of corps permits issued between July 31 and Aug. 6. The list was published on the corps Web site on Aug. 7.

Hobet, which is now part of Patriot Mining, is calling the new proposal Hobet 22. The mine would be an extension of its huge Hobet 21 complex, which has mined thousands of acres in Boone and Lincoln counties.

The new operation would be in the Berry Branch watershed of the Mud River, southeast of the community of Spurlockville.

Hobet 22 would employ 75 workers, and mine about 2.4 million tons of coal over a three-year period, according to permit documents. Most of the coal would be sold to American Electric Power's John Amos plant, records show.

CHARLESTON, W.Va. -- Hobet Mining wants to bury more than 4 miles of Berry Branch headwaters as part of a 400-acre expansion of its sprawling mountaintop removal mine along the Boone-Lincoln County border.

Late last week, federal regulators quietly approved the proposal. The U.S. Army Corps of Engineers granted Hobet's request for a Clean Water Act permit on Aug. 1.

But now, lawyers for four environmental groups say the public was told little about the project before it was approved.

On Thursday evening, the Ohio Valley Environmental Coalition and three other groups asked for a court order to block the corps permit.

Among other things, environmental groups allege the corps has ignored repeated selenium pollution violations at Hobet's other mines in the area.

"This creates a significant risk that the new mine, which will be mining selenium-laden coal seams, will be sending selenium contaminated waste to other mines where selenium discharge violations have already occurred," the groups say in court papers.

The case was assigned to U.S. District Judge Robert C. Chambers. Already, a series of 2007 rulings by Chambers requiring more detailed scrutiny of strip mining permits is being appealed by the Bush administration and the coal industry. The 4th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals is scheduled to hear oral arguments on Sept. 23.

The new suit does not specifically allege the corps violated Chambers' previous ruling. Instead, it says that the new Hobet permit contains the same kinds of flaws that led to that ruling.

Generally, environmental groups allege the corps has not adequately studied the mine's potential impacts as required by the Clean Water Act and the National Environmental Policy Act. Further, they allege that the agency wrongly accepted Hobet's plans to "mitigate" any damage by rebuilding streams that are damaged.

Corps officials issued the Hobet permit on Aug. 1, but it was not included on a list of corps permits issued between July 31 and Aug. 6. The list was published on the corps Web site on Aug. 7.

Hobet, which is now part of Patriot Mining, is calling the new proposal Hobet 22. The mine would be an extension of its huge Hobet 21 complex, which has mined thousands of acres in Boone and Lincoln counties.

The new operation would be in the Berry Branch watershed of the Mud River, southeast of the community of Spurlockville.

Hobet 22 would employ 75 workers, and mine about 2.4 million tons of coal over a three-year period, according to permit documents. Most of the coal would be sold to American Electric Power's John Amos plant, records show.

In discussions with the corps, Hobet officials agreed to reduce the length of streams damaged by mining from 6.5 miles to about 4.2 miles. The company also cut its mineral removal area by about 100 acres.

The operation would generate about 30.5 million cubic yards of waste rock and dirt. Most of that would be returned to the mined area, to restore it to its approximate original contour, permit documents say. The company needs to find someplace else, though, to put about 3 million cubic yards of excess rock and dirt, the records say.

Hobet proposes to dump the excess rock and dirt on two of its adjacent permits. The material would be used to re-grade mined areas, and not dumped into valley fills.

Also, Hobet has designed the mine to avoid placing a sediment control pond in a stream - something that the industry has argued is difficult if not impossible for mine operators to do.

Corps permit documents show the operation would still "permanently eliminate" more than 4.2 miles of streams.

Company officials proposed to "mitigate" this damage with a plan to "reconstruct" and "create streams once the mining is done.

Chambers, though, has found little scientific evidence that such plans really work. And in their new lawsuit, environmental groups alleged the corps has "wrongly assumed that mitigation will offset any losses" of streams to the Hobet 22 operation.

Corps officials sought public comment on the mining permit in October 2006. The agency issued a four-page public notice that summarized "the proposed mining activities and the related stream disturbances," according to the new lawsuit.

On Aug. 1, the corps approved the permit and issued a 117-page, singled-spaced Combined Decision Document and Environmental Assessment. The corps permit incorporates by reference the company's more than 200-page mitigation plan.

Corps officials criticized citizen group comments on the permit as being "very general in form" and containing "little specific content" about this specific mining proposal.

"Of course, the reason the comments were so general is because [citizens] were commenting on a public notice that contained only two descriptive paragraphs, not a [decision document] that contained 117 single-spaced pages and referenced hundreds of additional pages of appendices and supporting studies that were never mentioned in that public notice," environmental group lawyers told Chambers.

Other organizations that filed the suit are Coal River Mountain Watch, the West Virginia Highlands Conservancy and the Sierra Club. The groups are represented by Joe Lovett and Derek Teaney of the Appalachian Center for the Economy and the Environment and Jim Hecker of Public Justice.

Reach Ken Ward Jr. at kw...@wvgazette.com or 348-1702.