Dos Republicas Coal Partnership’s Eagle Pass Mine Water Discharge Permit Contested Case Hearing Set for March 30th

By: Jose G. Landa, Copyright 2015, Eagle Pass Business Journal, Inc.

The Texas Commission on Environmental Quality (TCEQ) announced that Dos Republicas Coal Partnership’s (DRCP) Eagle Pass Mine Texas Pollutant Discharge Elimination System (TPDES) Permit No. WQ 0003511000 to discharge open pit coal mining waste and stormwaters into Elm Creek and the Rio Grande River will have a “Contested Case Hearing” on Monday, March 30, 2015 at 10 A.M. at the Maverick County Courthouse, located at 500 Quarry Street, Second Floor, in Eagle Pass, Texas.

According to the public notice published in the Eagle Pass Business Journal on February 26, 2015, Dos Republicas Coal Partnership, which operates the Eagle Pass Mine, a subbituminous coal mine, has applied to TCEQ for a major amendment with renewal to TPDES Permit No. WQ0003511000 to add active mining acreage; add Outfalls 014M-020M to discharge stormwater and mine seepage from active mining areas; add Outfalls 001R, 003R, 004R, 006R-008R, and 014R-020R to discharge stormwater from post-mining areas; allow for water in all ponds to be used for dust suppression; add Outfall 021 to discharge stormwater runoff from fueling areas, fuel storage areas, vehicle and equipment maintenance areas, truck washing stations, and coal handling and storage areas; and add Outfall 022M to discharge mine pit water from active mining areas and stormwater from inside the rail loop. The exisiting permit authorizes the discharge of mine seepage from active mining areas and stormwater at an intermittent and variable flow via Outfalls 001-013.

The DRCP’s Eagle Pass Mine is located on the northeast side of State Highway 1588 (FM 1588) and U.S. Highway 277 North and approximately five miles northeast of the City of Eagle Pass in Maverick County, Texas. The Eagle Pass Mine will discharge its open pit coal mine effluent and waste to unnamed tributaries, thence to Elm Creek, then to the Rio Grande River Below Amistad Reservoir in Segment No. 2304 of the Rio Grande Basin, and to Hediondo Creek, thence to Elm Creek, and thence to the Rio Grande River. The designated uses for the Rio Grande Below Amistad Reservoir in Segment No. 2304 to be affected are high acquatic life use, primary contact recreation, and PUBLIC WATER SUPPLY.

The TCEQ Director has prepared a draft permit finding that this permit, if issued, meets all statutory and regulatory requirements. A copy of Dos Republicas Coal Partnership permit application, the Executive Director’s preliminary decision, and draft permit are available for viewing and copying at the Maverick County Clerk’s Office, located at the Maverick County Courthouse at 500 Quarry Street, Suite 2, in Eagle Pass, Texas.

TCEQ’s Notice of Application and the Executive Director’s Preliminary Decision to issue the renewal of TPDES Permit No. WQ 0003511000 were published on December 16 and 19, 2014. On January 15, 2015, Dos Republicas Coal Partnership filed a request for direct referral to the State Office of Administrative Hearings (SOAH) for a contested case hearing to determine whether DRCP’s application for this water discharge permit complies with all applicable statutory and regulatory requirements and should be renewed and reissued.

The State Office of Administrative Hearings has scheduled a contested case hearing on DRCP’s water discharge permit application on March 30, 2015, at 10 A.M. at the Maverick County Courthouse, 500 Quarry Street, Second Floor, in Eagle Pass, Texas.

Any interested person, governmental entity, business, organization, and/or party who wishes to participate in the contested case hearing on March 30th must attend the hearing and show how they would be adversely or negatively affected by DRCP’s water discharge permit in a way not common to members of the general public. Any person, governmental entity, business, organization, and/or party may attend the hearing and request to be named a party to DRCP’s water discharge permit application. Only persons, governmental entities, businesses, organizations, and/or parties named as a party may participate in the contested case hearing of DRCP’s water discharge permit.

Any person or individual, governmental entity, business, organization, and/or party who lives, resides, works, or studies on or near the Eagle Pass Mine permit boundaries, the Elm Creek, the Hediondo Creek, the Rio Grande River, any unnamed water tributaries, and/or uses the water of these water tributaries for recreational, fishing, agriculture, irrigation, farming, livestock, and/or as public water supply may seek to apply to become a party to DRCP’s water discharge permit by showing how they would be adversely and/or negatively affected by DRCP’s water discharge permit.

Any person needing information about the contested case hearing process for DRCP’s water discharge permit may call the Public Education Program at toll free 1-800-687-4040. Any person with disabilities who needs special accommodations at the contested case hearing should call the State Office of Administrative Hearings Docketing Department at (512) 475-3445 at least one week prior to the hearing.

At an earlier TCEQ public meeting held on January 29, 2015 at the City of Eagle Pass International Center for Trade, over 250 Maverick Countians, public officials, professionals, teachers, students, mothers, and children participated to voice their vehement opposition to the renewal of Dos Republicas Coal Partnership’s water discharge permit No. WQ0003511000.

The City of Eagle Pass, County of Maverick, Maverick County Hospital District, Maverick County Environmental and Public Health Association, George Baxter, the Paquache Clan of the Coahuiltecan Tribe of Texas, and other farmers, ranchers, and landowners oppose the opening of the Dos Republicas Coal Partnership’s Eagle Pass Mine on the densely populated Thompson Road (FM 1588), Deer Run, Elm Creek, South Elm Creek, Hopedale, Seco Mines, Siesta Acres, Pete Gallego Elementary, Seco Mines Elementary, and surrounding areas.

Mayor Ramsey English Cantu and County Judge David R. Saucedo invite all concerned citizens, entities, organizations, and/or parties to attend and participate in the March 30th contested case hearing and be heard on how this proposed water discharge permit will adversely affect you or your family or group of persons. If you do not attend and request party status at this March 30th contested case hearing, you will not be allowed to contest this permit at a later date. This is the community’s only opportunity to voice their opinion and request party status by showing how you would be adversely affected.

This contested case hearing will be a legal proceeding similar to a civil trial in state district court. At the March 30th hearing, each party must establish jurisdiction (live, reside, work, play, or study near the Eagle Pass Mine permit area or any of the Elm Creek, Hediondo Creek, unnamed water tributaries, and the Rio Grande River and will be adversely affected). In addition, written and oral public comment on the draft of the permit and application may be accepted.

The City of Eagle Pass, County of Maverick, Maverick County Hospital District, Maverick County Environmental and Public Health Association, the Paquache Clan of the Coahuiltecan Tribe of Texas, and concerned citizens contend that the Dos Republicas Coal Partnership Eagle Pass Mine will contaminate and pollute the community’s sole source of potable water-the Rio Grande River, contaminate the air, increase cancer and chronic cardio-pulmonary diseases, particularly among the children and elderly, increase public health diseases and public health costs, noise and traffic pollution, blasting noise and pollution, destroy the habitat of endangered species such as the Jaguarundi and Ocelot, and destroy and desecrate Native American archaelogical sites and grave sites within the open surface coal mine permit boundary and Elm Creek and Rio Grande River areas. Dos Republicas Coal Partnership denies these allegations.

Dos Republicas Coal Partnership is a Texas limited partnership comprised of two Texas corporations which are wholly-owned by Minera del Norte, S.A. de C.V., a Mexican company owned by Grupo Acerero del Norte (Grupo GAN). Dos Republicas seeks to transport the Texas coal extracted from the Eagle Pass Mine to Nava, Coahuila, Mexico through Union Pacific Railroad to be burned at the Mexican-government owned Carbon I and II coal-generated electricity plants, known to be a major air polluter of the Big Bend National Park and the State of Texas. Dos Republicas Coal Partnership’s Mexican parent company already operates an open surface coal mine on the banks of the Rio Grande River in Piedras Negras, Coahuila, Mexico, opposite of Eagle Pass, Texas and approximately one-quarter to one-half mile upstream of both Eagle Pass and Piedras Negras’ municipal water treatment plants. If the Eagle Pass Mine opens, it will be the second open surface coal mine operated by Dos Republicas’ Mexican parent company on the vulnerable and delicate ecological Rio Grande River on the U.S.-Mexico border, raising an international environmental justice dilemna.

The March 30th contested case hearing is open to the public.