Two new lawsuits, one filed in Huntington, West Virginia and one in Louisville, Kentucky, by the Ohio Valley Environmental Coalition and other groups allege the federal Army Corps of Engineers failed to consider the impact on people living near mountaintop removal operations when it issued permits to Raven Crest Contracting's Boone North No. 5 Surface Mine near Peytona in Boone County and Leeco Inc.'s Stacy Branch operation along the Knott-Perry County line in eastern Kentucky. The suits allege Corps officials did not include any human health analysis" when they approved the permits, ignoring citizen group comments pointing out a series of studies on the issue. In a previous case over an Alpha Natural Resources permit in Logan County, U.S. District Judge Robert C. Chambers refused to allow citizen groups to present testimony about the public health studies on mountaintop removal.
