Breaking News! Dos Republicas Coal Partnership “Throws In the Towel” on Its Controversial Eagle Pass Mine, Requests Remand for Reclamation Only Permit
By: Ricardo E. Calderon, Eagle Pass Business Journal, Inc., Copyright 2020
In a startling legal document filed by Dos Republicas Coal Partnership (DRCP) on Monday, July 6, 2020, through its attorneys, Michael J. Nasi, Ali Abazari, and Alicia R. French of the law firm of Jackson Walker in Austin, Texas, before the Railroad Commission of Texas in Docket No. C17-0009-SC-42-C, styled Application of Dos Republicas Coal Partnership for Renewal/Revision of Surface Coal Mining Permit No. 42B, Dos Republicas Coal Partnership moved to remand its application to the Railroad Commission’s Surface Mining and Reclamation Division (SMRD) to convert its authorization and permit to operate the controversial open surface coal mine known as Eagle Pass Mine to a Reclamation Only Permit, effectively seeking a permit to shut down the coal mine and begin the reclamation of the land used for the coal mine back to its natural habitat.
Facing a deadline of July 6, 2020 to reply to the opponents’ evidence and legal arguments against the renewal of the controversial open surface coal mine permit No. 42B, Dos Republicas Coal Partnership filed a Motion to Remand stating “DRCP was recently notified of an unexpected and unforeseeable cancellation of the coal supply agreements whereby coal from the Eagle Pass Mine is supplied to a power plant in Mexico. In light of the contract’s cancellation, DRCP will cease mining coal at the Eagle Pass Mine and seeks to convert its authorization to a Reclamation Only Permit…”
DRCP faced a trial date of July 27, 2020 before the Railroad Commission of Texas to renew its open surface coal mining Permit 42B, but without a coal supply contract cancelled by the Mexican government Comision Federal de Electricidad (CFE) on June 19, 2020 to become effective July 1, 2020, DRCP and its Mexican parent company and subsidiaries were dealt a devastating blow to the financial viability of the controversial Eagle Pass Mine, located three miles outside the city limits of Eagle Pass, Texas on FM 1588 (Thompson Road).
The City of Eagle Pass, Maverick County, Maverick County Environmental and Public Health Association, the Pacuache Clan of the Coahuiltecan Tribe of Texas, local ranchers, farmers, and real property owners, Environmental Defense Fund, Texas Sierra Club, and other local governmental entities and individuals waged a legal battle for over 29 years against the controversial open pit coal mine, alleging that the discharge of the coal mine’s waste waters directly into Elm Creek and other creeks who discharged into the Rio Grande River about one mile upstream from both the City of Eagle Pass and City of Piedras Negras, Coahuila, Mexico municipal water treatment plants polluted and contaminated the sole potable water source for over 300,000 residents as well as all downstream water users on the United States-Mexico border. Opponents also alleged that the Eagle Pass Mine polluted the air and caused coal dust flying off from railroad cars transporting the coal into Mexico to cause chronic obstructive pulmonary disease of Maverick Countians, particularly thousands of school age children from several public and private schools adjacent to the Union Pacific railroad tracks.
DRCP’s filing its Motion to Remand for a Reclamation Only Permit is a huge moral, environmental, and legal victory for the citizens of Eagle Pass, Maverick County, local governmental entities, local businesses, Piedras Negras, Coahuila, Mexico, all downstream users of water from the Rio Grande River to the Gulf of Mexico, and opponents of fossil fuels in the United States and worldwide.
The Maverick County Environmental and Public Health Association and local farmers, ranchers, and real property owners in opposition to the controversial Eagle Pass Mine were represented by the Texas Rio Grande Legal Aid under the leadership of Eagle Pass attorney Javier Riojas. Riojas stated that “DRCP has thrown in the towel” by filing its motion to remand seeking a reclamation only permit to be filed within 180 days.
