MCPA speaks at public hearing for EPA’s revised “WOTUS” regulations

Charleston, W.Va.:  The Metallurgical Coal Producers Association (MCPA) provided comments to the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) and the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers at the agencies’ public hearing Wednesday, May 14th relating to the EPA’s proposed revisions to the Waters of the United States (WOTUS) regulations.  The revised regulations are a result of a successful U.S. Supreme Court ruling (Sackett v. EPA, 2023) overturning the Obama Administration’s original WOTUS regulations.

In his comments at the EPA’s hearing held at the Kanawha County Court House, Ben Beakes, president of the MCPA, said, “I proudly stand before you today representing 10,000 hardworking people at 89 metallurgical coal mines in our four-state region of Kentucky, Pennsylvania, Virginia, and West Virginia.  We strongly support EPA’s plan to revise the federal definition of ‘waters of the U.S.’ to conform with the Supreme Court’s Sackett decision and provide ‘realistic durability and consistency’ for the regulated community.”

The MCPA and other industry speakers urged the EPA to fix the errors of the Obama-era WOTUS regulations that could have severely harmed growth and development for several industries.  Speakers asked the EPA to exclude such things as ditches and puddles from the definition of waters of the U.S., as the definition is meant for continuously flowing bodies of water.

In his concluding remarks, Beakes told the EPA that their job to enact reasonable regulations is important to unleash the opportunities the metallurgical coal industry has to provide the coal for steel-making that is needed to make advancements in our infrastructure.  “Your work is vital to this country’s ability to make critical advancements for our citizens and, with clear rules and regulations as you are proposing, our 10,000 employees are ready to provide the critical resources needed to make these advancements happen,” Beakes said.

The full comments provided by Beakes is below.

Good afternoon and welcome to West Virginia.  My name is Ben Beakes, and I am the President of the Metallurgical Coal Producers Association.  The MCPA is a trade association made up of seven leading metallurgical coal producers who produce the majority of steel-making coal in the United States.  I proudly stand before you today representing 10,000 hard working people at 89 metallurgical coal mines in our four-state region of Kentucky, Pennsylvania, Virginia, and West Virginia.

We strongly support EPA’s plan to revise the federal definition of “waters of the U.S.” to conform with the Supreme Court’s Sackett decision (2023) and provide “realistic durability and consistency” for the regulated community.

Toward that end, we urge the agencies to clearly and narrowly interpret “continuous surface connection” and “relatively permanent.” 

A continuous surface connection should only be found to exist where a wetland or water feature maintains an unbroken surface water linkage to a traditional navigable water (TNW) or relatively permanent water (RPW) under typical seasonal conditions.

A relatively permanent water should be one that under normal weather conditions, either (a) maintains surface water within a defined channel throughout the year (i.e., perennial flow), or (b) exhibits continuous surface flow for more than six months (185 days) in a typical year.

We also urge the agencies to explicitly identify water features that are excluded from the definition of “waters of the U.S.” including (a) ephemeral waters, (b) ditches, (c) water-filled depressions incidental to mining activity, (d) all components of waste treatment systems, (e) all on-site, engineered water management features, and (f) groundwater. 

This country and the world is on a mission to modernize and advance our infrastructure.  You cannot update our infrastructure without steel.  And you cannot make steel without met coal.  Met Coal Makes Steel! 

Your work is vital to this country’s ability to make critical advancements for our citizens and, with clear rules and regulations as you are proposing, our 10,000 employees are ready to provide the critical resources needed to make these advancements happen.