Kayenta Mine Operating Permit Renewed

By Joel ScanlonJan 15 2012

The Kayenta mine on the Navajo and Hopi reservations has been given a renewed operating permit. The mine in northern Arizona is owned by Peabody Energy Corp. The coal from the mine is used to feed the Navajo Generating Station.

The federal authorities have renewed permission for five years for the operation of the Kayenta mine. The current permit that allows the mining and reclamation work is to expire on July 6, 2015. The environmental groups in the region have been asking the federal government to not renew the permit.

They are now considering an appeal against the mining permit with claims that the mining operation in the region has depleted water supplies at a much higher rate than what Peabody Energy Corp. had predicted.

The Office of Surface Mining completed an environmental assessment and said that as it found no significant impact of the mining activities in the region it had renewed the operating permit for the Arizona coal mine.