Judge Rules Against Environmental Coalition

• {Charleston, West Virginia}...U.S. District Judge Robert Chambers has ruled the Ohio Valley Environmental Coalition can’t introduce health studies by West Virginia University researcher Michael Hendryx as evidence in their objections in a lawsuit against Alpha Natural Resources over mountaintop removal mining permits. Hendryx found that people living near mountaintop removal mines have higher cancer and birth defect rates, but the Army Corps of Engineers said it anticipated no such effects when it issued a water pollution permit. Alpha opposed using the studies in the battle over the Reylas mine in Logan County.