According to the Associated Press, Judge Kathy Seeley ordered the Montana Department of Environmental Quality (DEQ) to re-review the hotly contested permit in her March 14 decision because of the agency’s “clear errors in judgement.”
Specifically, she said, the pollution impact to several neighboring waterways had not been given proper consideration, as the DEQ had allowed reduced monitoring for those bodies and also reclassified them so that they would be governed by less strict regulatory outlines.
The Rosebud complex in Colstrip, Rosebud County, produces about 9 million tons annually. A majority of its output feeds the Colstrip power plant. Western Energy’s parent company is Westmoreland Coal.
Another proposal for a 12-million-ton expansion of the Rosebud mine is still pending review by the Montana Board of Environmental review, the AP noted, as that agency was awaiting Seeley’s judgment.
