EPA action targets illegal valley fills

Essar Minerals, an India-based company that operates Frasure Creek Mining and other subsidiaries in Kentucky, illegally buried more than two miles of streams in eastern Kentucky, according to legal action taken by the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency.

As reported by Bill Estep and the Lexington Herald-Leader, "Beginning in 2005, the companies or their agents buried a total of 11,256 feet of streams at one surface mine in Pike County and another on the Magoffin - Floyd County line without getting the required federal permit, according to the lawsuit."

Frasure Creek Mining has also been the target of litigation by KFTC and allies having to do with thousands of violations of the Clean Water Act at its eastern Kentucky mines.

In 2010, KFTC and the Sierra Club brought to the public's and regulators' attention that Frasure Creek may be filling streams illegally in these same areas.

Read the Herald-Leader story here.