Gallatin County Mine
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Gallatin County Mine was a proposed U.S. surface coal mine in Gallatin County, Illinois.[1] As of November 2019, the project has not progressed in more than four years and appears to be cancelled.
Contents
Location
The below map shows the approximate location where the mine would have been built in Gallatin County, Illinois.
Background
In December 2011, the U.S. Forest Service (USFS) sought public comment on a possible swap of property with American Land Holdings of Illinois, a subsidiary of Peabody Energy. American Land Holdings approached the Shawnee National Forest wanting to exchange three properties it holds in Pope and Jackson Counties for a federal parcel in Gallatin County, Illinois, for developing a coal strip-mining operation. The Gallatin federal parcel is 384 acres that adjoins the Saline River, two miles west of the Ohio River.[2]
Opposition
In January 2012, bat surveys found an Indiana bat maternity colony and gray bat foraging area on the tract that Peabody wanted to strip mine. The Indiana and gray bats are both endangered species under the Illinois Endangered Species Act. The Sierra Club and the Center for Biological Diversity urged the USFS to cease consideration of Peabody's land exchange proposal because it violated the Endangered Species Act's Conserve & Top Priority Duties. "Now that the site is known to be an occupied endangered species habitat," the organizations said, "the agency’s duty to “conserve” and give “top priority” to the protection and recovery of the Indiana and gray bats using the site forecloses the ability of the Forest Service to exchange the land so that it can be strip mined.[3][4]
Project Details
- Sponsor: Peabody Energy
- Parent Company: Peabody Energy
- Location: Gallatin County, Illinois, United States
- GPS Coordinates: 37.643560, -88.206574 (approximate)
- Status: Cancelled
- Production Capacity:
- Total Resource:
- Mineable Reserves:
- Coal Type:
- Mine Size: 384 acres
- Mine Type: Surface
- Start Year:
- Source of Financing:
Articles and resources
Related SourceWatch articles
- Coal and jobs in the United States
- Coal phase-out
- Headquarters of U.S. coal mining companies
- Global list of coal mining companies and agencies
- Proposed coal mines
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References
- ↑ "Stop the Swap—Go to Bat for the Bats" Sierra Club Illinois Chapter, Jan. 16, 2012.
- ↑ "Shawnee National Forest/Peabody Energy land swap received negatively" The Harrisburg Register, Jan. 26, 2012.
- ↑ Peabody Land Exchange Scoping Comment Letter Center for Biological Diversity, Jan. 30, 2012.
- ↑ "Peabody's Shawnee proposal stirs controversy over bats" St. Louis Post-Dispatch, Feb. 5, 2012.
