The state has issued only two new coal mining permits in 10 years, both to a company with a controversial environmental legacy that has locals concerned toxic ash could contaminate drinking water.
By Dylan Baddour
August 23, 2023
Texas regulators on Tuesday approved a 12,000-acre coal mine expansion despite objections from local governments and a river authority concerned about their water supplies.
Three nearby counties, two cities, a river authority, a groundwater district and several landowners had asked Texas’ upstream energy regulator, the Texas Railroad Commision, not to permit a new coal mine and ash disposal along the tributaries that fed their drinking water reservoir, Choke Canyon Lake.
After a year of legal proceedings, their final shot to make that case came Tuesday in the Texas Capitol. McMullen county judge James Teal, former manager for a gas pipeline company, presented objections to the mine and ash disposal at the commission’s monthly meeting.
