District Judge Darlene Byrne hears appeal of controversial U.S.-Mexico border open pit coal mine
By: Jose G. Landa, Copyright 2014, Eagle Pass Business Journal, Inc.
126th Judicial District Judge Darlene Byrne of Austin, Travis County, Texas, heard the appeal of the City of Eagle Pass, Texas, Maverick County, Maverick County Hospital District, Maverick County Environmental and Public Health Association, and George Baxter to rescind and set-aside the Railroad Commission of Texas’ split 2-1 vote to approve a permit to Dos Republicas Coal Partnership, a Texas partnership comprised of two Texas corporations who are subsidiaries of a Mexican company, Mineria del Norte, S.A. de C.V. (MINOSA), to construct and operate an open pit coal mine only three miles (as the crow flies) from the city limits of Eagle Pass, Texas on the banks of the Elm Creek, a direct water tributary of the Rio Grande River, within one or two miles upstream of both the City of Eagle Pass Roberto Gonzalez Municipal Water Treatment Plant and the City of Piedras Negras, Coahuila, Mexico on the United States-Mexico border on Tuesday, February 25, 2014.
District Judge Darlene Byrne heard oral arguments from attorneys representing the City of Eagle Pass, Maverick County, Maverick County Hospital District, Maverick County Environmental and Public Health Association, George Baxter, the Railroad Commission of Texas, and Dos Republicas Coal Partnership on whether to reverse or affirm the Texas Railroad Commission’s controversial January 29, 2013 split 2-1 decision concerning the Texas-Mexico border open surface coal mine located in a densely populated area in northern Eagle Pass, Maverick County, Texas, which includes many residential subdivisions, public elementary and head start schools, ranches, farms, and businesses.
Judge Byrne noted that the citizens of Eagle Pass and Maverick County have been fighting and opposing this controversial open pit coal mine for over 20 years and promised to make a final decision on the appeal by the end of March 2014.
Opponents against the foreign-owned coal mine company allege that the discharge of open surface coal mine waste waters and storm waters into the important Elm Creek water way and eventually into the Rio Grande River only a few miles upstream of of the Eagle Pass and Piedras Negras, Coahuila, Mexico municipal water treatment plants will pollute their sole source of potable water as well as that of downstream users on the Texas-Mexico border, estimated over three million, contaminate the air in their community causing cardio-pulmonary diseases to increase and aggravate public health diseases, cause landslides and severe tremors when blasting affecting humans and property, pollute the air with coal dust and related particles with daily 150 railroad cars crossing through town into Mexico, destroy the natural habitats of federally-protected endangered cats such as the Ocelots and Jaguarundi, destroy archaeological Native American burial and sacred sites, and the whole litany of issues pertaining to open pit coal mines.
Dos Republicas Coal Partnership denies all the allegations and promises to abide by all local, state, and federal coal mining laws.
Dos Republicas plans to sell the Texas coal to one of its Mexican sister companies or subsidiaries to sell the coal to the Mexican government’s Comision Federal de Electricidad (CFE) to burn in two coal-generated electricity plants near the U.S.-Mexico border, which the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) has reported as being major air polluters in Texas and United States.
