Feds to look into mine complaints

MAT-SU - A local group got an early Christmas gift last week when it learned that a complaint lodged about Usibelli Mining Co. Inc. gained traction with the federal Office of Surface Mining.

The Office of Surface Mining oversees the state's management of coal permits and it has given the Department of Natural Resources a 10-day notice to respond to the issues raised in the complaint.

The complaint alleges Usibelli is operating under an invalid permit. If the permit is found to be invalid, Usibelli will have to apply for a new mining permit for its proposed Wishbone Hill mine north of Palmer.

"If they don't have this permit, they can not mine. They'd have to start over and get a new permit," said Russell Kirkham, manager of the Department of Natural Resources Coal Regulatory Program.

Jamey Duhamel, coordinator of the Mat Valley Coalition, a group whose focus is on mining in Mat-Su, said the groups that filed the complaint hope the federal office will find Usibelli's mining permit invalid.

"If they do, Usibelli will have to reapply. That will give us the opportunity to make sure they include updated information," Duhamel said.

The existing mining permit includes outdated population numbers and doesn't recognize that there are hundreds of residents living within little more than a mile of the mine, she said. Residents hope that with updated information will come greater protections for people living in the Buffalo-Soapstone area and also for other Valley residents.

Usibelli said it's not worried that the permit will be ejected. The issue has come up before and didn't go anywhere.

"The state and even the Fed (federal government) has stood behind the permit, that it is a valid permit to mine, and we believe that," said Robert Brown, vice president of Usibelli's Southcentral operations.

Trustees for Alaska, operating on behalf of the Castle Mountain Coalition, Friends of Mat-Su, Chickaloon Village Tribal Corp. and several other groups, asked the Office of Surface Mining to examine Usibelli's permit.

According to Trustees for Alaska, the Alaska Department of Natural Resources issued a Wishbone Hill mine permit in 1991 to Idemitsu Alaska Inc., the company that owned the mine at the time. But mining permits terminate if the permitee doesn't begin surface coal mining operations within three years of the date the permit was issued. DNR may approve time extensions if mining is delayed due to litigation or "for reasons beyond the control and without the fault or negligence of the permitee," according to state law.

Trustees and the groups it represents state that one-time extension was requested, with a new permit expiration date of Sept. 4, 1996. But that's where they contend the permit ended. No mining happened within that timeframe and no extensions were requested or granted, Trustees say in a Nov. 28 letter to DNR that was later reiterated to the Office of Surface Mining.

DNR states that it did renew the permits to new mine owner North Pacific Mining Corp. in October 1996. The new permits were in effect for five years, ending in 2001. North Pacific then sold the permits to Usibelli and, in December 1997, DNR approved transfer of the mining permits and then renewed them in January 2002. The permits expired Nov. 27, 2011, but Usibelli had requested in May that they be renewed for an additional five years. DNR is reviewing that request.

Trustees for Alaska and the groups it represents say DNR's approach to extending the permits was too casual to be legal.

"DNR contends that serial renewals without the commencement of mining operations were appropriate because the agency ensured in each case that the renewals were subject to ‘an extensive review of the original applications and the baseline information they were based on,'" state Trustees for Alaska attorneys in its Dec. 14 complaint to the Office of Surface Mining.

"The ‘extensive review' standard applied by DNR ... was invented by DNR in a 1996 letter to the permitee and does not have the force of law," the Trustees state.

Kirkham said DNR has until Jan. 6 to respond to the Office of Surface Mining's notice. Because the response is still being drafted he couldn't say what the department's response will be.

Brown said Usibelli is making plans for its 2012 activities. He said the company has not yet made an official decision to begin mining operations but it's headed that way.

"We are pursuing mining operations," he said. "We're doing things right now to develop the mine along."