Maverick County Commissioners Court approve appeal of Dos Republicas Coal Mine
By: Jose G. Landa
An Exclusive Eagle Pass Business Journal News Story/Copyright 2013
Maverick County Commissioners Court approved to appeal the Railroad Commission of Texas decision to grant Dos Republicas Coal Partnership’s application to renew, revise and expand Permit 42-A, now renumbered Permit 42-B, Eagle Pass Mine, on January 29, 2013 on a highly controversial split 2-1 vote at its Monday, April 8, 2013 regular meeting held at the Maverick County Courthouse in Eagle Pass, Texas.
Maverick County Commissioners Court becomes the third and final public governmental entity in the community to approve an appeal of the highly controversial Dos Republicas Coal Mine project, joining the City of Eagle Pass and Maverick County Hospital District. Also appealing the controversial Texas Railroad Commission decision is the Maverick County Environmental and Public Health Association, a non-profit organization comprised of local landowners, farmers, ranchers, and citizens.
Maverick County Commissioners Court decision to appeal the Texas Railroad Commission’s granting the permit to construct and operate an open surface coal mine on the banks of Elm Creek only three miles from the City of Eagle Pass city limits in a densely populated area of northern Maverick County, which includes thousands of residents and school children, sends a loud and clear message to state and federal officials and Dos Republicas Coal Partnership investors that the community overwhelmingly opposes the potentially dangerous and toxic open surface coal mine, which plans to discharge its coal mine waste into Elm Creek, a direct water tributary of the Rio Grande River, and thence into the Rio Grande just a few miles upstream from both the City of Eagle Pass and City of Piedras Negras, Coahuila, Mexico municipal water treatment plants on the Rio Grande, which is the sole source of potable water for all Texas-Mexico border residents and municipalities from Eagle Pass downstream to Brownsville, Texas.
The Maverick County Commissioners Court will now appeal the controversial Texas Railroad Commission decision to a state district court in Austin, Travis County, Texas.
