A growing number of Utahns have voiced their opposition to a proposed expansion of a coal mine owned by Alton Coal Development. The proposal has been met with heavy criticism from environmental activists who claim that the expansion will impact a nearby national park.
The Bureau of Land Management wrote its initial Draft Environmental Impact Statement on the expansion in 2011, with a public comment period following. The agency revisited the proposal in 2015, issuing another DEIS. 300,000 people joined the public discussion this time around. Nathaniel Shoaff, an attorney with the Sierra Club, said that the growth in public engagement with the issue is unprecedented.
“This is an unprecedented level of public opposition to a proposed coal mine expansion. I’ve been doing this work for five years and I haven’t seen anything close to this level of public engagement on a single mine proposal,” he said. “The fact that we’re three-and-a-half years later and the company isn’t any closer to being able to expand onto public lands, I think is a testament to the agency’s willingness to listen to the public.”
The Alton mine, the only strip mine in Utah, has had its share of legal issues in the past, including fines for wastewater infractions. Shoaff said that those who are speaking out against the expansion are concerned about the mine’s impact on the surrounding area.
“I think you’ve got a couple of things going on there. One is definitely the connection to Bryce Canyon National Park, this iconic landscape visited by more than a million Americans every year,” he said. “The second thing is, Americans recognize that some places have impacts on wildlife that are disproportionate to the mining that is involved there.”
Alton coal executives are hoping to gain an extra 3,600 acres of federal land with the proposal.
