By now the demise of the Otter Creek mine is old news. I thought I should write something about it but I didn’t. Talking to a good friend a couple weeks later, I told him that it felt weird to write, photograph, organize and spend a significant amount of my life and emotional energy on something and then let the end of it pass without a note or retrospective. He told me that I’ve already written everything I needed to. He was right. I was content to sit…
By now you know that Arch Coal declared bankruptcy. We all knew it was coming. At first I didn’t think there was much to say about it beyond what the news articles were reporting but then I read Tom Lutey’s recent story in the Gazette and I think it is worth addressing the comments by John Tubbs, the director of Montana’s Department of Natural Resources (DNRC). Tubbs told Lutey that it was unlikely that Arch Coal would let Otter Creek collapse given the amount of money they had invested…
On Monday representatives from the Surface Transportation Board came to Ashland, Montana to host a public meeting about the draft environmental impact statement (DEIS) for the proposed Tongue River Railroad. They call it a meeting. I call it a box they can check off when they go back to Washington D.C. The word meeting implies a coming together of people to have a discussion. They make it very clear they won’t be answering any questions from the public. The STB and ICF staff read a pre-written script that was approved by…
The Surface Transportation Board (STB) released the draft environmental impact statement (DEIS) for the proposed Tongue River Railroad on April 27, 2015 and gave the public 60-days to comment. The document in printed form weighs over 20 pounds and presents 11 different alternative routes. Commenting on an environmental impact statement is tricky stuff. In order to get an actual response to your comment you have to submit a “substantive” comment. A substantive comment, as defined by the National Environmental Policy Act (NEPA), is a comment that suggests the…
On December 5, 2014 the Montana Department of Environmental Quality (DEQ) sent Arch Coal a deficiency notice on their air quality permit application for the proposed Otter Creek coal mine. Arch Coal submitted an air quality permit application to DEQ on November 6, 2014. I don’t spend much time with air quality permits so I checked with some folks that do and apparently it is quite common for mining companies to receive deficiency notices on their air quality permit applications and to go back and forth with the permitting…
Here is a quick update for folks following the proposed Otter Creek mine. (#1 is background for #2 and #3, #4 is just common sense). 1. In 2012, Arch Coal submitted an application to acquire a permit from the state of Montana to mine coal in the Otter Creek Valley, a couple years after they leased the coal tracts. In bureaucratic speak, what they submitted is called a “permit application.” It was a shit permit application. Arch Coal left out entire sections, had poor baseline data and did not come…
Seems like a really good spot for a coal mine, doesn’t it? Arch Coal just resubmitted their permit application to mine the Otter Creek Valley in southeastern Montana. Their first one was rejected by the MT DEQ over a year ago. If you’ve never been to the Otter Creek valley, here are a couple photos to help you visualize where a financially troubled coal company is proposing to build one of the largest coal mines in the nation. All photos taken July 2014. Click on the photo for…
In 2010, Arch Coal leased the Otter Creek coal tracts from the state of Montana. If you are interested in how the proposed Otter Creek mine came to be please read my short Otter Creek play that I wrote,”Once Upon A Mine”. There is supposed to be a part II but I’m having a hard time making it funny since whole debacle is so goddamned depressing. However, I am not writing today to talk about the leasing or the corporate pandering by our elected officials or the lack of vision for…