Railroad Commission Issues Preliminary Decision on Dos Republicas Coal Mine/Opinion
By: George Baxter
On November 15, 2012, Texas Railroad Commission Hearing Examiner Marcy Spraggins issued a recommendation that the application made by Dos Republicas Coal Partnership to operate an open pit coal mine in Maverick County be approved. The opposing parties have 15 days to reply to this proposal and 10 more days to comment on the other parties’ replies. After this time elapses (on December 10), the proposal goes to the three elected Railroad Commissioners who make the final decision. The Commissioners can either accept or reject Examiner Spragins’ proposal. Any decision can be appealed in State or Federal court.
Contrary to reports in other media, Maverick County, the City of Eagle Pass, the Maverick County Hospital District, the Maverick County Environmental and Public Health Association and the individual landowning parties have not dropped their opposition to the mine and will continue to work against it.
None of this changes the undesirability of having a coal strip mine located initially only three miles north of Eagle Pass City limits and only one mile from Deer Run, Pete Gallego Elementary School, Seco Mines Elementary School and parts of Seco Mines. If given a permit to operate, the mine will most likely continue to expand in future years to areas as close as one mile from the northern city limits of Eagle Pass.
The same hazards of air pollution and water pollution that impelled opposition to the mine still remain. The open pit mining will generate large amounts of dust, coal dust and silica which will blow into populated areas whenever the wind is from the north and from the daily 100 car train transporting the coal to Mexico through town. This will only worsen the already high incidence of COPD in the community. Further, the mine will discharge its wastewater into Elm Creek and then into the Rio Grande, two miles upriver of the City is municipal water intake. In the event of an accident or heavy rain which overtops the settling ponds at the mine site, pollutants would be released into the sole source of drinking water for 60,000 people in Maverick County and another 150,000 in Piedras Negras, Coahuila, Mexico. The annoyance and property damage caused by blasting at the mine to nearby residents and schools is another negative factor in this proposed operation.
Dos Republicas has stated that the life of the mine is at least eight (8) years and that coal reserves exist for 18 years of mining.
Dos Republicas is a wholly owned subsidiary of mining companies in Mexico such as Altos Hornos de Mexico(AHMSA) which have a questionable business and environmental record in that country. They have stated that they intend to ship 100% of the coal mined here to Mexico to be burned in the electric power generating plants in Nava, Coahuila, Mexico. Thus, Texas will receive none of the energy benefit of this coal while we in Maverick County will suffer all of the adverse environmental and health consequences.
In a November 7, 2012 interview with the Piedras Negras Zocalo, Coahuila Governor Ruben Moreira stated that the coal industry in that state has brought “many disadvantages. In the matter of urban development, it has destroyed the growth of Sabinas, Cloete and Agujita” and “the matter of ecological damage is obvious.” He went on to say that the State and Federal governments in Mexico were working on an investigation of the possible involvement of organized crime in the state of Coahuila coal industry.
Those who may believe that the mine will be good for the economic growth of Eagle Pass should consider Governor Moreira’s remarks. What business person would locate a business in a town with a strip mine? Who would want to bring their family to live here, exposed to the pollution generated by the mine? Communities with open pit mines are universally regarded as being at the bottom of the economic ladder, the last place anyone would want to live in.
For all these reasons, the Maverick County Environmental and Public Health Association will continue to oppose the mine in whatever forum it is possible to do so. More than 8,300 residents of the County have signed petitions and letters opposing the mine and these have been forwarded to the Railroad Commission. Our elected officials at the Maverick County Commissioners’ Court and Eagle Pass City Council have already demonstrated their steadfast opposition to the mine by passing unanimous resolutions to that effect. We ask that they continue their opposition in order to protect the health and welfare of the citizens of Maverick County and the City of Eagle Pass.
