Maverick County and the Dos Republicas Mine
Update on the Current Situation
By: George Baxter
The efforts of Maverick County citizens and public governmental entities to prevent the proposed Dos Republicas open pit coal mine from becoming operational are still continuing. Even though the Texas Railroad Commission has granted Dos Republicas Coal Partnership a permit, the Dos Republicas mine remains a huge threat to the health and safety of the citizens of Maverick County. Dos Republicas is 100% foreign owned and 100% of the coal mined will be sent by rail to Mexico through Eagle Pass neighborhoods and public schools. Texas will receive none of the energy benefit from it, only all of the adverse consequences.
No coal has yet been excavated, but if the Dos Republicas mine becomes a reality, it will discharge all its wastewater into Elm Creek and then into the Rio Grande River, upriver of the City of Eagle Pass municipal water plant intake, potentially polluting our only source of drinking water. Likewise, the mine will be a continuous source of air contamination and pollution, not only from the mine site itself (located only 3 miles from City Limits and one mile from Deer Run Subdivision and Pete Gallego Elementary School), but also off of the 150 car train that will carry the coal through the middle of Eagle Pass every day, en route to Mexico. Maverick County already has rates of bronchitis, emphysema and asthma twice the state average; the mine will only worsen this, especially for the very young and very old.
Dos Republicas has made many different claims over the years about the number of jobs the mine would create. In 2011 it was 250 jobs; in 2013, they told the Gram it would be 150-200 jobs while at almost the same time telling the Wall Street Journal 60 jobs would be created and the Austin American-Statesman that there would be 40 full time jobs. And, for example, the Belle Ayr open pit coal mine in Wyoming, which produces 10 times as much coal per year as the Dos Republicas mine is projected to produce, only employs about 280 people. Regardless of the real number (and there is no telling how many jobs will be filled from up north or from Mexico), it is apparent that only a small number of people will profit from the mine while the whole community suffers the adverse consequences.
Accordingly, the Maverick County Environmental and Public Health Association along with the City of Eagle Pass, Maverick County and the Maverick County Hospital District have all joined in an appeal of the Railroad Commission of Texas’ decision to grant the coal mine permit. This appeal has passed through State District Court and is now at the Third Court of Appeals in Austin, Texas. The two sides are exchanging legal briefs, the last of which is due about October 23rd. After that, the Court will set a date for a hearing on this case.
Although Dos Republicas likes to say that they have all the necessary permits, this is not true – they still lack two. These are a permit for wastewater discharge from the Texas Commission on Environmental Quality (TCEQ) and a Floodplain Development Permit from Maverick County.
Dos Republicas does have a permit to discharge its mine wastewater into Elm Creek for its original 2,700 acre mine. However, its discharge permit application to cover the entire 6,346 acres of the current mine is still pending with TCEQ. When TCEQ does announce its preliminary decision as to whether or not to grant the permit, the citizens of Maverick County will have 30 days to make written comments to TCEQ and to ask for a contested case hearing. Senator Carlos Uresti and Representative Poncho Nevarez have already asked TCEQ to hold a public meeting in Eagle Pass on this permit and TCEQ has indicated that it will do so, probably in the late Fall.
The Texas Legislature has delegated flood damage control to counties and Dos Republicas has applied to Maverick County Judge David R. Saucedo for a permit to mine coal and to excavate at least five (5) huge sedimentation ponds in a floodplain designated by the Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA) along and near Elm Creek. County Judge Saucedo has denied this permit application because of the dangers that these mining operations would pose to residents living downstream of the mine, such as those in Elm Creek Subdivision, in the event of a major flood like as we had in June 2013 and June 2014. These dangers would include the increased damage caused by the deposit of mine sediment, coal dust and acid drainage onto any flooded homes or properties.
Dos Republicas is currently suing County Judge Saucedo and Maverick County in state district court to try to force issuance of this permit. The court hearing on this case will be held at 10 AM on October 9th in the 293rd District Court here in Eagle Pass before the Honorable Judge Cynthia Muniz.
The people of Maverick County should be very appreciative that their elected officials, Mayor Ramsey English Cantu and the City Council, County Judge David R. Saucedo and Commissioners’ Court, and Chairman Juan Manuel Farias and the Maverick County Hospital District Board have all decided to continue to protect the health and safety of the many citizens of Maverick County instead of the financial interests of the few.
The Maverick County Environmental and Public Health Association will continue to oppose this Dos Republicas open pit coal mine in all legal ways possible until it is brought to a halt for the best interests of all Maverick Countians.
