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CHARLESTON, W.Va. - Environmental groups are trying to stop another new mountaintop removal permit, this one along the Clay-Nicholas county line.

Lawyers for the Ohio Valley Environmental Coalition sought a preliminary injunction late last week to block the permit for two Fola Coal Co. mines.

Together, the mines would bury more than five miles of streams in the Sycamore Run, Ike Fork and Lily fork watersheds, near Bickmore and Gilboa.

U.S. District Judge Robert C. Chambers scheduled a hearing for Sept. 30 in Huntington.

At the same time, lawyers for citizen groups, the Bush administration and the coal industry prepared for today's showdown at the 4th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals in Richmond, Va.

Coal operators and the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers are appealing two 2007 rulings by Chambers to require more detailed scrutiny of Clean Water Act permits that allow coal companies to bury streams.

Visit an archive of mountaintop removal coverage.

CHARLESTON, W.Va. - Environmental groups are trying to stop another new mountaintop removal permit, this one along the Clay-Nicholas county line.

Lawyers for the Ohio Valley Environmental Coalition sought a preliminary injunction late last week to block the permit for two Fola Coal Co. mines.

Together, the mines would bury more than five miles of streams in the Sycamore Run, Ike Fork and Lily fork watersheds, near Bickmore and Gilboa.

U.S. District Judge Robert C. Chambers scheduled a hearing for Sept. 30 in Huntington.

At the same time, lawyers for citizen groups, the Bush administration and the coal industry prepared for today's showdown at the 4th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals in Richmond, Va.

Coal operators and the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers are appealing two 2007 rulings by Chambers to require more detailed scrutiny of Clean Water Act permits that allow coal companies to bury streams.

A three-judge panel of the 4th Circuit will hear oral argument in the case this morning. The 4th Circuit has overturned three other mountaintop removal rulings by federal court rulings by West Virginia judges.

The new court action involving Fola is the second time in a month that environmental groups have sought Chambers' help in blocking a new corps approval for a mountaintop removal operation.

Last month, environmentalists dropped their challenge of a new permit for Hobet Mining's huge operation along the Lincoln-Boone County line after they learned the company had already begun burying the streams there.

Now, environmental group lawyers want Chambers to require the corps to provide earlier public notice of permit proposals to give citizens a chance to review those proposals - and perhaps go to court to stop them - before the damage is done.

Also, they want Chambers to block the Fola permit for the company's Ike Fork No. 1 and Ike Fork No. 2 surface mines.

Among other things, the groups allege that Fola built several sediment ponds at the site without required corps approval. They say that the corps is ignoring potential selenium runoff that would pollute water downstream from the mining operations.

Neither the corps nor Fola Coal has responded to the court filings yet. Fola is part of Pittsburgh-based CONSOL Energy Inc.

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