North Dakota Coal Dealt Setback

Great Northern Power Development withdrew its application for a new coal mine near South Heart, North Dakota. The company said it acted in response to a complaint filed at the North Dakota Public Service Commission by Plains Justice on behalf of Dakota Resource Council and local landowners. The complaint challenges the construction of a new coal preparation plant.

The complaint was filed against GTL Energy for failing to obtain a coal mining permit before starting to build a coal preparation plant near South Heart. State and federal law define coal preparations plants as “surface mining operations” when they are associated with a mine. The proposed plant, which has been under construction since October 2008, would be adjacent to the proposed South Heart coal mine, which has a mining permit pending, and is expected to treat coal from the mine.

“A mining permit would include a bond, so the community would have a guarantee the site will be cleaned up when the plant goes out of business,” said DRC Board member Linda Weiss from nearby Belfield.

PSC Reclamation Division staff issued an opinion August 5 that GTL did not need to file a mining application, but the Commissioners themselves have not ruled, so the matter has not yet been officially decided.

“Surface mining law is meant to prevent more abandoned mines, which we are still cleaning up in this state. We don’t want to go backwards,” said Weiss.

Frank and Lucy Hurt of South Heart said, “This is a victory for us and our community. The South Heart mine posed an immediate threat to our livelihood. As we do our calving check tonight, we’ll be breathing a little easier.” Their family has farmed for three generations at the same South Heart area farm.

Coal from North Dakota, Wyoming and Montana strip mines is either burned on-site in power plants to shipped power to neighboring states, or the coal is shipped in mile-long trains that travel throughout the Midwest.

Coal shipping was the center of a serious controversy over the proposed Dakota Minnesota and Eastern (DM&E) rail expansion during recent years. Community and environmental advocates throughout Southern Minnesota protested rail expansion that they alleged would benefit Western coal mines, rather than farmers. Local residents expressed concerns over everything from noise to the inability to reach hospitals in emergencies as long trains blocked traffic in towns on the route.

Coal strip mining is the source of much of the coal burned in the Midwest. In Minnesota, most coal comes from the Powder River Basin in Montana and Wyoming. Massive strip mines devastate the land and aquifers they are built on, endangering the natural water supplies that ranch and farm families depend on to make their living.

Farmers and ranchers near South Heart are fighting to prevent their traditional rural way of life from being destroyed by a giant strip mine and coal gasification plant proposed near by. The farmlands and grasslands of their rural area are a half hour’s drive from Theodore Roosevelt National Park.

The opposition to the mine and power plant is several years old, but is almost completely unknown outside of North Dakota. Different mines and power plants have been proposed at the South Heart location. The mine application withdrawal follows cancellation of a proposed 500 MW coal-fired power plant last May. But a 4,500 acre coal mine, a coal preparation facility and a coal gasification plant are still planned.

Currently North Dakota coal is not shipped far beyond the mines it comes out of because it has low energy value and sometimes catches fire in transit. As a result, almost all of the coal mined in North Dakota is burned in power plants. The coal preparation facility proposed near South Heart would process the lignite coal to increase its energy value and allow it to be shipped throughout the Midwest. If this new technology proves successful, it could open up North Dakota coal to much greater exploitation. The coal gasification plant would burn coal to create synthetic gas for export to other states.

Local residents and environmentalists are concerned that, North Dakota’s farms, grasslands and aquifers – and the traditional rural way of life they support – could be seriously harmed by many new large coal strip mines.